Travel next day goes to travel no way....

Woke up this morning very eager for our appointment with the medical clinic that our embassy contracts with. I mean Joshua slept all night and did not wake up with a fever. He still had a big problem with runny nose but he was eating fine.

First thing up was weight.. he weighs 18.7 lbs. The doctor explained he was too underweight which we knew that he has an issue with being underweight but also he has a healthy appetite so that would resolve itself while home.

His muscle tone is poor.. again we knew that and it is expected with children who have Ds. She saw he was on an antibiotic and said it is unfortunate that many times orphanages put children on antibiotics who may not need it. I asked should we discontinue it and she said probably but that she was going to do a chest xray and then decide. She said he sounded fine but wanted to make sure before we stopped the antibiotic. He was placed on a table to do the chest xray. 5 minutes later she says something showed up on the xray and said he has acute pneumonia to his left lung. She tells us we must get him treated and she would repeat the xray in 3-4 weeks and if it was ok he could go on to travel. She said if it was not pneumonia it was TB and there was one test to determine which and it is too dangerous to sedate child who has Ds. So without the test she would not rule out TB even though she figured it was pneumonia.

At that moment I lost it.. sobs, cries... I was a mess and not a hot mess. All the pent up emotions came flooding down my face in the form of tears. I pleaded and begged to allow us to just travel and I would get him checked out in the states. She looked at my translator and said I am through talking to this blubbering woman.. she said she could not understand me while i cried. I asked for a second opinion and she was not happy but agreed to give us the xray but then looked at me and yelled NO CRYING and then asked how could I as a mother want to risk his traveling?

At the new clinic it was explained the situation. They ran blood work which showed he was battling an infection but the xray showed no pneumonia or TB and that it was due to a sinus infection. I called our embassy to explain the situation and they informed me that we contract with only one clinic in Kiev and it did not matter what any other doctors said. They told us to return to the first clinic with the findings of the other doctor and to plead for them to reconsider.

We did so but the director of the clinic refused to listen and said they would wait 2 weeks before doing another xray and that they would not accept any other xrays. They demanded I take him to Childrens hospital in Kiev immediately for pneumonia treatment. Dejected we headed to the hospital.

Upon arrival the doctor took a look at our 2 xrays and said "Why are you even here?" We told him that Joshua needed to be treated for pneumonia. He said Joshua does NOT have pneumonia and then said he has nasal issues and he gave us a new antibiotic for his sinus infection and some nasal spray.  He wrote a letter stating his findings. By the time we left the embassy was closed as well as the medical clinic.

We have had to cancel our flights and eat $350 in cancellation fees. We are not even sure what we are going to do to pay for the extra time here. The medical clinic that is contracted by our government has final say so if they are upset that we have gotten so many opinions contradicting that one doctors they could withhold permission for weeks. We have contacted our state representative to attempt to apply some pressure especially since the hospital they sent him to basically sent us away because he is not as sick as what the medical clinic said. This could work for us or against us but it is our only option. We can't even ask the medical clinic for treatment because they said they just diagnose and it is up to us to find someone to treat him.. and again WE CAN'T FIND ANYONE TO TREAT HIM FOR PNEUMONIA BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE SAYS HE DOES NOT HAVE IT.

Bottom line we need prayers and lots of them. Pray that this clinic takes the word from the hospital they referred us to. I will be staying back at the apartment as to not cry if they refuse us. Don't get me wrong.. I believe Joshua is fighting some infection however not what they believe it to be. I also know that he was so much better today. You have seen previous pictures on my blog of some really sick children.. sick children that had to be hospitalized right away. Joshua has never been in danger of that... and the facilitators are shocked by this and have said this is the first case where a child has not been granted clearance. A side note is that we were told after our embassy would not intervene that we should contact our representative. He has been notified and details sent so he can contact the embassy first thing on Monday. We plan on laying low in our apartment and keeping Joshua inside so we can try to get rid of his runny nose. Sorry this post probably is dragging on but I am spent.. emotionally I am ready to go home.. psychologically I am beyond ready to go home.. physically I have a migraine. I leave you with a picture of Joshua taken today.. I will call it- Does this picture look like I am too sick to go to my new home?