Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Visit to Riley

It's late - and we were a loooooong time at Riley Hospital having Jia checked out. We are having some blood work done, and they did an xray of her back to see if she possibly had any curvature of her spine. I never noticed it. Of course, it's hard to see the reasons why the doctor was concerned when you have a whirlwind living in your home and doesn't stand still at any time for anyone to actually notice it. But when Jia was actually standing still for her, I could see why there was some concern... Funny, when it came time to go to get her x-ray, she went willingly with the technician, and the technician told me that she did really well, even held still for her when she asked her to.

The one thing that the doctor was impressed with was her receptive language and the amount of words (even sentences) that Jia was speaking after having been with us for 5 weeks. She has been learning her ABC's from a little toy computer that had been purchased by Roy's cousin Elaine last year in September when we visited his family in the Chicago area. One of the games asks the child to find a letter, with a picture of the letter they are supposed to find on the screen. Jia can find them all after playing with it for a few minutes over about 4 days. And she is beginning to learn some letters by sight and can name them.

It was an interesting (and trying) day for the kids... OH - yeah, Kenzie just had to go, too. I know she thought that Jia was going to get some kind of special treatment or special time with Mama... and she didn't want to be left out. Of course, before we even got to Indianapolis, she was saying, "Are we there yet? I'm bored!" Well, duh - what did mom and dad tell you before we left....????

One other interesting thing - when they poked Jia with the needle to draw blood, the only thing she did was draw her breath in for a fraction of a second. Then she just watched. I'm floored. I think this is probably a result of the orphanage training the kids not to make a big deal of falling down or getting hurt - or perhaps they just don't make a big fuss about the kids falling down when they are young, so they never learn to recognize that when you hurt or have pain, you're supposed to cry out so it alerts others that you need help. You know what that's like. An infant will fall and then look at his/her mother or father to see how s/he is supposed to react to it. If the mom makes a big deal of it, the baby cries. If the mom ignores it, the baby will, too. That's assuming that there's no broken bones or anything that would make any normal person cry out in pain.

One last thing - they found that she had lots of ear wax (the dry, crusty type) on her ear drum. I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow to ask him to clean out her ears. That may have a lot to do with Jia's loudness.

Oh well... I can't wait to get the results from today's visit. She seems so healthy.

4 comments:

Karyn said...

Jia's first doctor visit sounds very similar to Olivia's! Ear wax issues, curvature of the spine, lots of x-rays, etc. We initially had to follow up with a specialist because of thyroid concerns, but that ended up normalizing :) We also found her to be anemic and not responding to iron supplements...so I pushed for her to be tested for Thalassemia. Yep, she is a carrier, but not symptomatic.

Olivia did however cry a lot in anticipation of the blood tests, but was surprising good while the blood was being drawn. When she had her kindergarten shots, she didn't cry at all which was a shock. In the beginning all the medical follow-ups were overwhelming making sure her heart surgery in China was enough. In the end, we were relieved to find out that we have a pretty healthy kid :) Sounds like Jia is too, with all that energy! Hope all the tests come out well :)

Lisa said...

Anna is very stoic like that too. Could also be Jia has nice big veins and I know those techs at Riley are really good.....so why make a big fuss over nothing? I like Jia's attitude! When are we going to go play again?

Dawnn said...

Julie,
I'm glad to read that everything seems to be going well. It's great to hear how well Jia has adapted to her family! Madison had that wonderful ear wax mess when we came home in 2004 - luckily we have only had to have it taken care of the one time! Let me know what they find on Jia's x-rays - I had surgery as a yound teen to correct my curvature. I know they have come a long way since waaaaay back then!
Happy Holidays!
Dawnn

Gail said...

So happy everything is going well!
My 13 mos old had blood work done last week and never shed a tear this time. She has screamed in the past.
I think its the technique.