I got the kids into the doctor right away when they came home from Haiti, given the lack of medical care they'd had in their first 2-3+ years of life, and the recommendations from the CDC. They got a different doctor from the practice than who Kaylen had usually seen, but he's been great. He's very thorough, and is good about explaining things to us as we go.
*First week home:
They did blood draws for each kid to test for all sorts of things. Both kids screamed, of course - while one of us held them down, one tech held the arm still and the other drew the blood. Josephine did not like getting checked out by the male doc. She was afraid of him, so I don't think he got much of a look in her ears and no look at her throat, teeth, or nose. She screamed with her teeth clenched! Elijah did OK with him. Josephine would wake up from bedtime/naps with lots of gunk clogging her nose/eyes and had quite a cough and a rustle in her breathing, so they did a quick chest x-ray. It took me and a nurse/tech to hold her on the wooden chair for it. It turned out clear - probably a sinus infection, so they gave us an antibiotic and a nebulizer to use as needed. The antibiotic helped Josephine greatly. The nebulizer not so much - she was deathly afraid of it, so good thing she didn't really need it.
They sent us off with stool sample collection kits and orders to do this three times per child - fun. The doc decided to wait a week or so for immunizations until they're a little more adjusted and J was feeling better.
*Week Two:
The doctor called... both kids are anemic, and both have slightly elevated lead levels but he assumes with proper nutrition and iron supplements for a couple months, the iron levels will rise, He said that the lead levels (which can be caused somewhat by the low iron) will go back within the normal range. So I was off to purchase iron drops to put into both of their breakfast each morning. Stuff's not easy to find, but I did find it at one of the many pharmacies in town.
He also asked us to take Elijah back to have some further labs redone - he asked us to do it at the main peds clinic, instead of the one we usually go to, because they have the more sophisticated lab there. So, since Jock was back at work, I took both the kids myself. Boy, was that a disaster! When I got there, they didn't know anything about it. So they called our doc to find out what was going on, had him re-fax the lab order, only to tell me that I had to go across the street to the hospital's main lab, not the peds clinic. Granted this was my first time out myself with the kids, but while I was waiting for them to figure this out, Elijah and Josephine got nutty and wild! The door going back to the examining rooms was propped open, and they were both running away from me - and it turned into a game for them - running and laughing while I chased them. What a disaster! Finally the nurse came out with the lab order slip and helped me wrangle the kids and get their coats back on while she explained where to go and what needed to be done. She was awesome, I was embarrassed.
Elijah and Josephine got a little lecture before we got out of the car at the hospital - although they probably had no clue what I was saying - they knew I meant business, and were fine at the next place. They stayed right next to me while we waited for them to get it figured out. Elijah cried like crazy because it was him getting poked and Josephine cried because she couldn't see me (I was holding him down on the other side of the two techs) and probably also because she thought she was next from the previous week. Both's cries stopped immediately when the tech pulled out the sucker basket. Then Elijah cried half-way home because he dropped his sucker on the floor in the van. I stopped at McDonald's on our way home for lunch - Wednesday is $2 Happy Meal days. :)
*Week Three:
I took Kaylen (and E&J with) to the doctor for her ear ache. She had been complaining of her ear hurting but then she'd say it was better, so I assumed it was just drainage during sleeping. Then overnight she was up crying for 2+ hours - and Tylenol didn't touch it! Turns out she had a really nasty ear infection - doc was surprised she was acting so well in the office.
While we were there, the doc asked if we wanted to go ahead and start E&J's immunizations. Sure - they were behaving fairly well and were healthy, so why not make it all in one trip instead of having to come back in a couple days! (They must not have been busy that day.) Kaylen had been having trouble listening to me and behaving in general the last few days (now we know probably aggravated by her being sick), but today she was AWESOME!!! She was mommy's helper extraordinaire! And, boy did E&J scream for the shots - E got 6, J got 5. Two nurses came in to make it go faster. Each were holding down one leg and giving shots - I was holding the upper body and hands down. The nurses were amazed by how strong they were - especially Elijah - and warned me to give them Tylenol as soon as we got home because they were very tense and their muscles would be sore. They sure were. Both - but especially Elijah - were walking funny and whiny when they had to walk or get their diapers changed that afternoon/evening - and Elijah into the next day in one leg. Poor kiddos!
Then we stopped by the clinic's pharmacy before leaving, and the peds office had given us tickets for free lollies, so that helped. :) Then we went home and had lunch and naps.
The doc didn't have the last stool sample back that day, so we were still waiting on that. He'd called the previous week to say they wanted to do another sample for each kid. Apparently the first sets showed Josephine had some sort of parasite, but they couldn't tell what kind it was - there are two that look the same under the microscope so they had to do another sample (this time frozen) to see which one it was. He wouldn't have the results back until the following week.
*Week Four:
Elijah wouldn't eat supper one night. He'd been eating very well since he'd been home, but we thought maybe he just gagged on too big of a bite, so we didn't think too much of it. We put him to bed early and hoped it was nothing. By 11 he was up again, crying, vomited a couple more times (on me!), and burning up with a 102-103 fever. He was back in bed by midnight and slept the rest of the night and was fine when he woke up.
The next day, we took E to the doctor anyway - had a lump behind his ear and cried through nap time. It was an inflamed/infected lymph node. They couldn't see in his ears because of the dried/built-up wax. He's now on an oral atb (which he likes) and an ear-drop atb (which he hates). E&J also had their tuberculin tests started. Doc said the lab had J's stool sample figured out, but were trying to find the medicine for it and order it in a form that she could take.
At the end of the week, we had to go back to have their TB tests read - which were negative, and to pick up J's parasite meds. It was half-pills that she had to take three times per day for 20 days. Boy - that was fun! And the instructions said to crush it and put it in applesauce or chocolate syrup. From other adoptive families I'd heard the joys of choking their kids to get them to take it because of the taste, but luckily Josephine took it just fine each of the 60 times.
Week Five:
Nothing except continuing Elijah's oral antibiotic, ear drops, and both E&J's iron supplement.
Week Six:
All is fine except Jock, Kaylen, and I come down with head colds. Not fun chasing a two- and three-year old when you're sick yourself, but somehow we survived.
Week Seven:
Took both Elijah & Josephine back to the doctor for round two of their immunizations. It was a pretty quick trip. Elijah had two shots, Josephine got one, which was a combo of three vaccines. We finished up Josephine's parasite meds finally!
Week Eight:
Nothing except continuing E&J's iron supplement.
Week Nine:
Kaylen had a sore throat we took her in for, so we have one back on an antibiotic, but nothing for E&J except for continuing their iron supplement. I like these weeks with little/nothing medical to update about!
Week Ten:
Nothing to update. Continuing E&J's iron supplement.
Week Eleven:
Round three of shots were this morning. Both got two shots, and weren't happy about them. Both also got blood drawn to recheck their lead and iron levels, and weren't happy about those either. The lab tech seemed annoyed that my and the other tech couldn't hold their arms still. I'm not sure what she expected. It seemed to go better the previous times we had their blood drawn, but was OK. The nurse called back already this afternoon to let us know the E&J's lead levels were back within the normal ranges - yeah!!! We should have their iron levels back tomorrow. Now no more blood draws until June (for Elijah) and no more shots until October - yeah!!!
Elijah has had the sniffles the past several days, but no other symptoms. I'm guessing he might have a bit of the seasonal allergies. Nothing new to this family! The pollen counts have been high around here for the last week or so. It's kind of cute though - he'll come up to me, get my attention and just stare at me until I notice that he's got snot running down his upper lip. It's his way of telling me he needs a kleenex. I'm just glad he's not a kid that doesn't care if he's got snot all over his face. :)
...and hopefully they all stay healthy for a while now, because I go back to work next week. I can only imagine they might pick up viruses fairly easily from their daycare friends this first year, but being that the weather is warming up, I'm hoping they don't catch too much until the weather turns cold again this fall.
Then that evening (4/11), I did this:
...and finished the back on April 16th:
Poor little girl wasn't feeling well, and fell asleep. Doing the left side of her head was tough, because she can't suck her thumb when she lays the other way.
were getting
pretty ratty, so I pulled them out. We got so many compliments about the free hair at church April 11th, 
that I decided to leave it free for her birthday and the kids' dedication. Basically I would make loose parts in the front, twist them back to the top of her head and put little claw-clips in it. The claw clips would stay in place even during naps and overnight. I would just comb it out every couple days after bathtime when I would condition and then spray in detangler. These are just a few random free-hair shots.
Then Tuesday night I finished the back while we watched TV. Knowing I'd have to do it from different angles, I did it on the living room floor, with her laying across my legs. She HATED me doing the left side of her head, because she had to lay on the right side and couldn't get her thumb into her mouth. She cried through 3 of the 4 braids on that side, poor girl!
How did I do it? I parted ear to ear across the top to separate the front and back. I then parted from the center of her forehead back to the side to side part. Then each side, I parted into three triangles. So the front is six cornrows - each one started at her hairline and going back to the center of her head. I just put on the beads as usual, and once all six braids were done, I put a little terrycloth pony-tail holder in them. For the back, I parted side to size, and then each triangle piece from her hairline to the center of the circle, then cornrowed, beaded, and combined with a terrycloth pony-tail holder. I love how it looks like a flower in the back. When her hair gets a little bit longer, they'll hang down like a regular pony-tail. The pony-tail on the top doesn't stay put as easily (in the pix it's a little off to one side after her sleeping on it). I think it's because the cornrows aren't as close to her scalp - but I just adjust it in the morning and all is well.
