Appointment for TB check

Early Monday afternoon, August 15th

Well, we're glad that the morning is over. :-)  We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 10:00 and walk to the clinic to meet the rest of the group at 10:15 to check the children's arms for their tb tests.  We came up to the room with a plan of quick bathroom break and teethbrushing, only to find the maids here cleaning the rooms and working on the bathroom.  Great.  We got started in Adam's bathroom and Rick tried to get Max to go but he pitched a fit and wouldn't even sit on the potty.  As the maid finished in our bathroom, Rick took the girls in there for teethbrushing and I immediately heard Max quietly grunting and then heard the dreaded words - da bien ma, da bien ma.  Sure enough, he had gone "da bien" in his pullup.  Rushed to clean him up and by the time we were finally ready it was 10:08.  Yikes.  Put Mr. Max in the stroller and practically ran to the clinic.  Got there and didn't see ANYONE for our group so I was really worried that we were too late and had missed the appointment time.  Ruh Roh.  Finally saw Jeff and Elisyn, who are staying at the same hotel as us and he said he had gotten there a few minutes early and still hadn't seen the group so we relaxed a little, knowing that we hadn't missed the appointment!

After a few minutes, the guide and group from the Garden Hotel arrived and we headed in for the tb test reading.  I knew that Max had a reaction on his arm, and knew that we would be cutting it close.  She marked the raised area and measured it and it came out to exactly 10mm.  Which means.  He had to have the chest xray done.  He was such a big boy in the xray room and actually kind of liked it - funny boy!  As we finished up they said that we would know the results in a little while.  But then our guide, Elvin, came and asked me to bring Max back to the exam room again.  There was one other family asked to come back, and the mom, Sherry, told me that she didn't have her daughter's medical report from the referral with her on Saturday, so they were probably wanting to look at that now.  I asked Elvin what in the world was going on for us, why did they want to see Max again?  Rick and I were both more than a little concerned.  Elvin said, it is not about the xray, don't worry, it is just about his heart.  They want to listen to it again.  ????  Praying that all would be okay. . . .  the first doctor listened over and over again and looked very concerned (but could just be concentration, right?)  Called in the main doctor (that had examined the thyroglossal cyst on Saturday).  He listened intently, and then the two doctors appeared to be having a disagreement over what they were hearing.  In the end, they said that it sounded good and they could no longer hear a heart murmur.  That was reassuring, at least for us to come home from China, but of course I'll be very happy once we see our own family doctor, pediatric cardiologist, and ENT.  After the heart worries, they came and told us that his chest xray was clear,  praise God!  We were VERY relieved to be out of the clinic and know that we were cleared to bring him home as scheduled at the end of the week.  Next appointment - US Consulate!  Rick, Max and I will leave the hotel at 7:10 am, and Adam and girls will sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast and perhaps a swim while they wait for us to return.