Medical Exam Day

Okay, I’m not gonna lie when I say I was dreading this…I believe I mentioned that in the last post. With Hope’s “no touchy-touchy” policy, I didn’t think the medical exam would be anything short of disaster. We met our group downstairs at 10 am to all travel to the medical center together. It was at this time that I was asked for Hope’s shot records. Shot records…hmmmm…nope, don’t remember getting those. Luckily our guides only wanted them because they were going to translate them for us. We got on the bus with 4 other families. One family is a precious couple that actually live in Birmingham about 15 minutes from us. Love this couple.Their little one has had his lip repaired and some of his palate. He will still need work on that but he is super cute. We found out we will be on the same flight back to the U.S. Woot! Woot! We also are going to split the cost for a van to get to Hong Kong instead of taking the train. Way less drama and stress that way. Anyway, we arrive at the clinic and the first thing we do is take a picture for the VISA. Hope wasn’t having any of this. They tried to sit her in a little white chair by herself…bwah ha ha ha! As if! Then Eric tried to hold her as she thrashed around. We then stepped out of line since we were holding it up big time. The couldn’t get a picture with both her ears visible in the photo. I was like why does it matter?! I thought it was a China thing but they said that OUR country insists that both ears show…WHAT?! I’m writing a congressman. What if my child didn’t have both ears! Finally after watching 3 other children getting their photo’s taken and Eric passing her off to me, we got a photo (I saw it later and it is amazingly cute, especially considering she had been screaming at the top of her lungs just moments before.)

Then we had to wait around for our guides to assemble all our forms for us to fill out. Then it was time to go to all 4 stations…there is no order you just get in the shortest line. The stations are: Nurses (weight, height, temperature) ENT, General Exam, and TB shot. Praise the Lord Hope didn’t have to get a TB shot because she is under 2 years old. The shots they give here are not the simple little three pronged shots they are a huge needle stuck way in the child’s arm. It’s fairly horrible. We went to nurses station first. And as we already guessed the stats we got on her before we left for China were indeed inflated. She weighs only 21 pounds. Her height is about right though…about 1/2 inch off. Next was ENT…bwah ha ha ha. So the guy squeaked a toy on one side of her head and she turned screaming then he had another one on the other side of her head and she turned…still screaming. He then looked at her eyes with his eyes for like 1 second and barely pulled her cheeks apart to reveal that her bilateral cleft lip was complete. Then he scribbled through the entire form and signed it. I could have done that. Then the general medical exam…she screamed some more, he measured her head, had us take off her shoes and socks, and listened to her lungs and heart…how I don’t really know through the screaming. Then we took her to a little table where he put her on her back and lifted her shirt to glance over her front and back and he opened up one side of her diaper and check her front and back…total time less than 15 seconds. Then he declared we were done with our exam. I was supposed to tell them she was on antibiotics but he didn’t seem to care when I tried to tell him. All things considered it went WAAAAYYY better than I had imagined, God is faithful and I have little faith...clearly. (just kidding) But she recovered so quickly and let us even comfort her some. I was very happy about how the visit went. Of course Eric makes it look so easy to restrain her because he is so much stronger than I am. But even he agrees she snapped out of it pretty quick. However, for the rest of the day she only wanted Daddy. No Mama.

We got back in the bus and she chilled out on Daddy’s lap for the ride home. We ate lunch and then she took a nap. I went to a VISA paperwork meeting and the Eric and the kids went exploring a little when Hope woke up.  When I returned from the meeting we waited out a small thundershower and then all decided to go to the pool. Noah sure needed the exercise and fun. He had been having a pretty blue day. It totally perked him up.  After the pool, another couple, the one we met in Chicago, phoned us and we all went out to a Mexican restaurant called Tequila for dinner. We had a delightful time. I’m so sad we don’t live closer to this awesome couple. We hit the 7/11 on the way home, that’s right I said it…7/11, for water and snacks. Upon arriving at the hotel we did some “trading” with  Ashley and Mark, their medium diapers for our Gerber Puffs, some cough drops and Oragel sticks. Good times. Now Hope is sleep fighting and awake in her crib. Noah is about to hit the sack and I am too! Tomorrow and pretty much from here on out is relaxing and sightseeing until our consulate appointment. I’m finally caught up on this blog to present time! Yay! Blessings dear ones!