Today we had Alina's first "well visit" since coming home. She has already traipsed along with Jude and/or Cal on a few doctor visits, so she knew the place and people fairly well already. I explained what they would be doing at her well check up and what they might ask, and she said she wasn't scared or nervous at all. And she did great!
We got a lot of great information from her well check up. We were very blessed to have been provided her shot records from her foster family, and we knew she had excellent care in their home, so most of the "usual" issues of internationally adopted children weren't issues for us at all. They did a quick finger prick to check basic blood work, a urine test (which she and I giggled about for several minutes, but they apparently do them in Latvia too so she wasn't too horrified by the concept!), measured her height and weight, tested her balance/muscle tone, and checked her vision.
If you've seen pictures of Miss Alina, it is obvious she is a little bitty thing, but I was surprised to see that she weighs about the same as Jude and Calvin! (In her defense, Calvin is the most solidly built child I have ever seen while Jude is as lean as they come...) We have noticed her growing taller even since we've been home, and no matter how I try to protest, one day sooner than I'd like my daughter will be taller than me! But she is growing well and proportionally, and to be honest is built very much the same way I was at her age. (May she stay away from the Whatchamacallits when she someday gets pregnant because it was all down hill from there...) Her blood work and urine test all came back great, and she passed all the coordination tests with flying colors.
We did learn today that she will need glasses. We have been watching her closely as she reads or works on the computer to see if she is straining to see, and today the doctor noticed that her one eye isn't doing it's fair share of the work. We are making an appointment with our family eye doctor to get her rechecked and probably ordering her glasses. We also got an inhaler for her to use as needed. Sometimes when we go for walks, she has tightening in her chest and pain in her side, and the doctor thinks she may have exercise induced asthma. I feel pretty confident that this won't be a huge problem for her, but it is nice that we have what we need already should she one day need assistance from an inhaler.
We knew before adopting Alina that she had been diagnosed with scoliosis, but it was considered mild and probably just something we would just have to watch to be sure no intervention would be necessary. One of the reasons we wanted to have Alina checked out now was to see how our doctor felt about her scoliosis, and so the doctor would have a baseline to compare with as Alina grows. The doctor ordered an X-ray of her spine, and we will go later this week for that to hopefully give us some more specific insight into what we are dealing with. The doctor wouldn't commit to any prognosis from just the office exam, but she did say that the x-ray very well may show us she needs to see an orthopedic specialist.
I know in the big scheme of things, this is really - as we say in our house - "no biggie", but when it is your daughter, well...it feels like kind of a biggie. I am trying not to worry since we don't have any definitive answers yet (and also because, you know...Jesus tells me not to...), but the thought of her having to wear a brace or have any sort of surgery makes me physically ache inside. It is one thing to see the word "scoliosis" on a piece of paper before meeting Alina, but a whole other ball game when she is here and we love her so dearly and we would do anything to avoid any fear or pain for her. Not realistic I know, but it's a mother's heart.
She is, overall, very healthy, and for this we are so thankful. Tomorrow morning she has another horse riding lesson, and then we have our post placement visit with a social worker to write a report for the court back in Latvia. If it isn't unbearably hot, I may take the kids swimming in the afternoon (but it may be unbearably hot..again). My prayer each day this week has been that God would allow me to enjoy my children, because sometimes I get so busy with the duties of motherhood that I forget how delightful and fun they really are! As Mark said to me tonight, we love our life. There may be curves in the road ahead (pun intended), but in the big scheme of things...we are really, really well.
We got a lot of great information from her well check up. We were very blessed to have been provided her shot records from her foster family, and we knew she had excellent care in their home, so most of the "usual" issues of internationally adopted children weren't issues for us at all. They did a quick finger prick to check basic blood work, a urine test (which she and I giggled about for several minutes, but they apparently do them in Latvia too so she wasn't too horrified by the concept!), measured her height and weight, tested her balance/muscle tone, and checked her vision.
If you've seen pictures of Miss Alina, it is obvious she is a little bitty thing, but I was surprised to see that she weighs about the same as Jude and Calvin! (In her defense, Calvin is the most solidly built child I have ever seen while Jude is as lean as they come...) We have noticed her growing taller even since we've been home, and no matter how I try to protest, one day sooner than I'd like my daughter will be taller than me! But she is growing well and proportionally, and to be honest is built very much the same way I was at her age. (May she stay away from the Whatchamacallits when she someday gets pregnant because it was all down hill from there...) Her blood work and urine test all came back great, and she passed all the coordination tests with flying colors.
We did learn today that she will need glasses. We have been watching her closely as she reads or works on the computer to see if she is straining to see, and today the doctor noticed that her one eye isn't doing it's fair share of the work. We are making an appointment with our family eye doctor to get her rechecked and probably ordering her glasses. We also got an inhaler for her to use as needed. Sometimes when we go for walks, she has tightening in her chest and pain in her side, and the doctor thinks she may have exercise induced asthma. I feel pretty confident that this won't be a huge problem for her, but it is nice that we have what we need already should she one day need assistance from an inhaler.
We knew before adopting Alina that she had been diagnosed with scoliosis, but it was considered mild and probably just something we would just have to watch to be sure no intervention would be necessary. One of the reasons we wanted to have Alina checked out now was to see how our doctor felt about her scoliosis, and so the doctor would have a baseline to compare with as Alina grows. The doctor ordered an X-ray of her spine, and we will go later this week for that to hopefully give us some more specific insight into what we are dealing with. The doctor wouldn't commit to any prognosis from just the office exam, but she did say that the x-ray very well may show us she needs to see an orthopedic specialist.
I know in the big scheme of things, this is really - as we say in our house - "no biggie", but when it is your daughter, well...it feels like kind of a biggie. I am trying not to worry since we don't have any definitive answers yet (and also because, you know...Jesus tells me not to...), but the thought of her having to wear a brace or have any sort of surgery makes me physically ache inside. It is one thing to see the word "scoliosis" on a piece of paper before meeting Alina, but a whole other ball game when she is here and we love her so dearly and we would do anything to avoid any fear or pain for her. Not realistic I know, but it's a mother's heart.
She is, overall, very healthy, and for this we are so thankful. Tomorrow morning she has another horse riding lesson, and then we have our post placement visit with a social worker to write a report for the court back in Latvia. If it isn't unbearably hot, I may take the kids swimming in the afternoon (but it may be unbearably hot..again). My prayer each day this week has been that God would allow me to enjoy my children, because sometimes I get so busy with the duties of motherhood that I forget how delightful and fun they really are! As Mark said to me tonight, we love our life. There may be curves in the road ahead (pun intended), but in the big scheme of things...we are really, really well.
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