A few Medical Updates

Today we have 2 pieces of Medical news...

1.  Shriner's has set up an appointment for us for August 15th in Greenville, North Carolina.  We are excited that they are willing to see us and are moving forward at a decent pace.  We didn't know exactly what to expect.  But, all the information we have indicates they are willing to take us on as a patient.  This is very cool for several reasons.  One of them being, they really work well with children.  It's what they do.  They specialize in kids with limb deficiencies and we are looking forward to their opinion.

2.  We had our appointment finally for the TB meds for Lucas.  Our pediatrician recommended and sent us to the Public Health department because they felt more comfortable with that.  I think I mentioned several months ago that I was hesistant about the way the TB test was read here in the States.  It did not seem consistant with the way China read it.  If this makes any sense to you---China measured the induration (bump) which was smaller than the reddened area.  Our ped. measured the entire red area and did not even feel around for the induration.  I believe this is due to inexperience with TB tests that actually come back positive.  I did research on this and found out there is a blood test (thank you Holly for your input on that as well).  I asked, and our Ped told us this did not always give good results.  He didn't really support it.  I do not want to take a risk of TB for my child so we decided to go forward with the meds.  But, something has still been in the back of my mind about all of this not being done right.  In the meantime we had to wait for our appointment with the public health dept.

TODAY...finally....the nurse in the public health dept that deals with this stuff everyday said "do you want to just do the blood test?"..."it's what I would do"....seriously....I wanted to kiss her.  She totally agreed with me.  She said "why put him on unneccessary meds if you don't have to?  THANK YOU!!!! This is my whole point.  I did question it's validity.  She said "It's what We use"..  "it's extremely accurate"  ... and they are responsible for the public health.

I am so relieved by it.  Even if it comes back positive and we have to do the drugs, I just feel like it is a more valid test.  So this is good news.  The meds will have to be taken for NINE months if we do need to do it.  That's a lot of medication in his system.  Willing to do it but not if we don't have to.

We will know the results in 2 weeks.
Prayers appreciated.