American Clinic appointment

Sorry I missed posting yesterday but after our appointment and such we spent quite a bit of time talking to our team over here and our team in the states. We also spent a lot of time going over our options and trying to decide what is best for Joshua. We both feel Joshua would be better in the states for treatment but we are also coming to realize if that is not what is in the cards right now we have got to make sure we find the best treatment we can for him here.

The American Clinic here met with us for our consultation. The doctor reviewed the x ray we had and the blood work from last week. She said she does not believe for a moment this is TB. She believes his blood work shows as of Friday he was fighting something. She does believe it is pneumonia. Again we were told that in this country children with pneumonia are automatically hospitalized for 10 day treatment (American clinic but doctor was Ukrainian). She said they could hospitalize him for us for $600.00 a day. She also said we could go again to a state run hospital and ask them to admit him but we have heard some real horror stories such as using same medicine dispensers on multiple patients or eating utensils. Plus other families have had to travel that route and their child was treated poorly based upon their Down syndrome diagnosis, orphan status, and new American parents. I reminded her that he was given a 5 day dose of zithromax which is take it for 5 days yet it continues to work for so many days after that. She said that is not treatment for pneumonia which took me back a bit. I had researched this medication before hand and this is what I found on it: Azithromycin is used to treat or prevent certain bacterial infections, most often those causing middle ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia, typhoid, and sinusitis. In recent years, it has been used primarily to prevent bacterial infections in infants and those with weaker immune systems. Dave and I decided to leave at that point to discuss our next step as we do not have $600/day and would have to check to see if our insurance can somehow work with that particular hospital since Joshua is covered under Dave's insurance now.

Let me tell you right now our observations with Joshua- his appetite is awesome, when getting him from the orphanage he was severely dehydrated but that is no longer an issue, his nose requires us to use saline and suction often, at times he sounds gunky down low but after we use saline and suction him really well he sounds just fine. After meals he goes through a congested period. He has a cough at times but it is very loose sounding and is not a constant cough it almost sounds rattly in his throat when his nose is congested. He has had no fever for now 6 days. No troubles breathing at night- sleeps through the night without coughing or waking, and naps his usual once a day. His biggest congestion episodes are after meals or when we are pushing the fluids. We received comments on a possible aspiration issue so we have now begun to thicken everything just in case.

New plan as of now- we continue treating him the best we can until Monday. IF at any point we truly feel our efforts are not working or he gets worse in any way we will seek hospitalization. Again we are working with our insurance on finding a place we are comfortable with. On Monday we make a last ditch effort to see if there is some improvement or enough for them to allow us to take him home to seek treatment in the US. We are operating right now on the assumption that it probably will not be the case since everyone has told us that even if the pneumonia is getting better it could take a while for his lung to be fully cleared. On Monday if it is a no go we are not going to pursue bronchoscope for sputum samples. We are unsure if we can find someone to do it and even though everyone believes it is not TB and the results would be favorable to return home, we simply do not want to jeopardize his life sedating him while his lungs are not healthy. We do not feel this is a told you so kind of moment.. this is really about making sure we bring him home safely and will not risk a procedure just so we can say see he could have traveled.. see it is not TB. If again it is no-go we will see hospitalization for 10 days. Dave will stay in country with him at all times to monitor his care wherever we have to go for it. After that treatment we will ask for another x ray by the clinic to see if at that time they can return home. We have not discussed any further about what happens after that. We have found that long term plans never work so we just have to work on shorter ones.

I return home on Tuesday no matter what. My son Trevor flies home on Wednesday and we will be having my sisters memorial on Thursday. During this time I will also have to take care of my sister's apartment so that my mother will not have to do it alone. We pray in the end of those 10 days Joshua will be allowed to travel.

Thank you so much for all the prayers, encouragement, and advice. We have our good moments and our bad moments yet but we cling to the knowledge that Satan could not prevent us from making him our son and this country can not keep him forever. We know that irregardless of how much time we have to spend here that he is OUR SON and he will never have to spend another day as an orphan and he will be allowed to come home where so much awaits him and us as a family. I know that there are protocols needed and rules to be followed but deep in my heart I just want to tell those in this country hindering us that they had their chance to do right by this little boy.. they didn't so let us just get him home to a place where he belongs, where he is loved and wanted, where opportunities exist for him. For now we wait.