Clinic day!

Today was the dreaded Down Syndrome clinic day for my three boys, Ralph, Zhen and Theo. Dreaded because of the long lonely drive and the hours stuck in an exam room.

Everything turned out OK, just like I knew it would. I didn't fall asleep at the wheel! No poop disasters. No surprise fevers. I made it home in time to get the kids to church. Great!

The clinic is one-stop-shopping for our kids. But, they have never done three children at one appointment before. I talked them into doing this for me thinking that we could kill three birds with one stone. I didn't quite work out that way, though.

First thing, the clinic medical director came in to see us. She was gaga over Theodore and how much better he looked today than he did in August. Don't get me wrong, he's still an emaciated 16 pound four year old boy. So I asked her if I had shown up in August with him looking like this would she have admitted him to the hospital and she said no. Yay! He really does look great! And I guess you would know if I would take the time to load some photos, huh?

We spent lots of time on Theodore and Zhen and not so much on Ralph because I just don't have as many concerns for him right now. The folks at the clinic are BIG on services. They were pretty insistent that I start the boys on speech therapy, physical therapy and much, much more right away!!!

I disagreed. In my mind, learning to live and love in a family is the therapy that they need the most right now. If you've seen them a few times then you've most likely seen some big changes in them already. I'm not eager to send them back to an institutional setting at this time. So, we'll see. We'll talk about it later.

Thanks to the Down Syndrome Guild of Kansas City I found a friend to help me out with the boys for awhile this morning so that I could focus. It was a fellow adoptive mom who I have always wanted to meet! What a blessing!

Ralph and Zhen got some blood work done. All three boys were slated for neck x-rays today but the waiting room was a zoo and it was getting late and we missed lunch. We will go back for x-rays in December.

Yep, we are going back in December. It was just impossible to get everything done that we needed to do with three boys today. Theo needs some serious hearing tests and Ralph needs a hearing aid check. I think we will do separate appointments in the future if we are just going to have to come back anyway.

I came home with a stack of papers with therapy ideas for feeding and strengthening for Theo. I also got prescriptions for ankle braces for all three boys. I'm meeting with the Scottish Rite people about those next week. I'll let you know how it turns out.