Laurie and I have spent a lot of time during the past few weeks wondering about how it must be to be a ‘young’ adult to be faced with some of the decisions we have with Laura and Sami. One of the first things to do once the girls were settled was to get them checked up by the doctor – these are healthy girls, by many standards, but one can’t forget where they came from. There are bound to be issues.
From their medical checkups, they did pretty well. Sami was the one we have worried about more than anything; she was sick during a lot of her childhood and has had a constant cold since we arrived. On the surface she looks real healthy, but under the surface, we knew there were some issues. But mostly things were just fine.
And who can forget school immunizations, which are supposed to be a fairly routine life experience for the girls; it ended up really giving us a scare.
First let me say that the girls had to get the whole regimen on shots, as would any kid, and as you all know well enough, I would prefer a walk in the park any day. But it was ok. The fun for us started with the TB tests performed on the inside of the forearm, between the elbow and the wrist: the doctor and nurse were supposed to advise us of the reactions conditions to watch out for; needless to say, a week or so after both girls’ wrists were still somewhat red (positive TB skin reaction), Laurie called dear friends who are Pediatricians in St. Paul to ask their opinion. They recommended we take the girls in right away as this was clearly a positive reaction.
Anyway, we took the girls in one at a time, and Laura first as her arm seemed to have a larger reaction area. Of course, with out an appointment, getting in to see a doctor is like waiting in a checkout line at a register that is closed. So my approach was to become annoying, and more aggressive than usual (I know that will not surprise some of you). I figured no Doctor wanted their waiting room hearing a guy ranting about how his daughters might have TB, etc… Most people younger than our parent’s generation don’t really even know what TB is since it is now considered virtually eradicated in the States. But that does not stop them fearing it.
Laura and I got in fairly soon after that and the doctor was not happy with the situation and wanted both girls fully tested (can you spell CT scan?) to determine if they actually had positive signs of TB (in their lungs) or only seem to be carriers (we hear that many, many who live in tropical locations are the latter).
Had we known it would cost even half of the $10,000 it did to find out that neither girl has TB, would we have sought out a second opinion at the beginning? We are so lucky that our family has insurance protection, albeit with a very large deductible, and for that we are VERY thankful. But what about SO many who have nothing? Would the doctors have prescribed all that they did? CT scans, blood work, x-rays, more ct scans (3 in all), overnight stay in the hospital, etc…. Take your best guess.
And so, as a preventative measure, even though the girls seem to be clear of active TB, we were prescribed a nine-month dose of TB preventative medicine. The good news for Laura is that in Texas, TB is so rare, the State of Texas underwrites the cost and a month’s supply of pills is less than $4. We knew that was too good to be true.
For Sami, who cannot swallow the small horse pill that Laura takes, was prescribed a liquid medicine, and according to the doctor needs to be made. A chemist located near the hospital was qualified to produce the liquid meds in their lab, which ended up being a 21 day supply and cost $20; another $250 bucks. Obviously, we bought the meds and began the regimen, but in our mind there had to be a cheaper way for Sami.
Enter the adventure another wonderful, generous guy my dad introduced us to in Mt. Home, who also happens to be a Pharmacist. I really like to say Chemist, but only the Brits really say that; he is a Pharmacist in Arkansas. He was surprised to hear about our predicament - instead of making the medicines he advised Sami might even be given half a pill instead of the liquid if she would take it.
So, our saga is not all drum and dreary. They say adversity brings brings people together? This certainly did for us.
It gave us a real, honest scare at times when we were sort of lead to believe there was a chance one of our girls might be TB active; I really glossed over some of the anger and frustration Laurie and I went through during this period. But I have to say it really did bring us very close to our girls and brought to or family a new level of closeness, and I suspect, brought to Sami (and even Laura) a new level of understanding how their new Mommy and Daddy are trying to take care of and protect them. In retrospect, this is a great thing that came out of this. Another was the compassion of our doctor friends who walked with us while we made some of these decisions.
Maybe this is what the Bible means by God causing good to come out of bad. While I do not think God planned for our girls to get sickly just so I could write a testimony about nice people, He can see when things are not going well, and by the power of prayer, and His will, He can and sometimes does change things according to His purpose. Praise God for that! Thank you Wendy, John and Mike!!!!
From their medical checkups, they did pretty well. Sami was the one we have worried about more than anything; she was sick during a lot of her childhood and has had a constant cold since we arrived. On the surface she looks real healthy, but under the surface, we knew there were some issues. But mostly things were just fine.
And who can forget school immunizations, which are supposed to be a fairly routine life experience for the girls; it ended up really giving us a scare.
First let me say that the girls had to get the whole regimen on shots, as would any kid, and as you all know well enough, I would prefer a walk in the park any day. But it was ok. The fun for us started with the TB tests performed on the inside of the forearm, between the elbow and the wrist: the doctor and nurse were supposed to advise us of the reactions conditions to watch out for; needless to say, a week or so after both girls’ wrists were still somewhat red (positive TB skin reaction), Laurie called dear friends who are Pediatricians in St. Paul to ask their opinion. They recommended we take the girls in right away as this was clearly a positive reaction.
Anyway, we took the girls in one at a time, and Laura first as her arm seemed to have a larger reaction area. Of course, with out an appointment, getting in to see a doctor is like waiting in a checkout line at a register that is closed. So my approach was to become annoying, and more aggressive than usual (I know that will not surprise some of you). I figured no Doctor wanted their waiting room hearing a guy ranting about how his daughters might have TB, etc… Most people younger than our parent’s generation don’t really even know what TB is since it is now considered virtually eradicated in the States. But that does not stop them fearing it.
Laura and I got in fairly soon after that and the doctor was not happy with the situation and wanted both girls fully tested (can you spell CT scan?) to determine if they actually had positive signs of TB (in their lungs) or only seem to be carriers (we hear that many, many who live in tropical locations are the latter).
Had we known it would cost even half of the $10,000 it did to find out that neither girl has TB, would we have sought out a second opinion at the beginning? We are so lucky that our family has insurance protection, albeit with a very large deductible, and for that we are VERY thankful. But what about SO many who have nothing? Would the doctors have prescribed all that they did? CT scans, blood work, x-rays, more ct scans (3 in all), overnight stay in the hospital, etc…. Take your best guess.
And so, as a preventative measure, even though the girls seem to be clear of active TB, we were prescribed a nine-month dose of TB preventative medicine. The good news for Laura is that in Texas, TB is so rare, the State of Texas underwrites the cost and a month’s supply of pills is less than $4. We knew that was too good to be true.
For Sami, who cannot swallow the small horse pill that Laura takes, was prescribed a liquid medicine, and according to the doctor needs to be made. A chemist located near the hospital was qualified to produce the liquid meds in their lab, which ended up being a 21 day supply and cost $20; another $250 bucks. Obviously, we bought the meds and began the regimen, but in our mind there had to be a cheaper way for Sami.
Enter the adventure another wonderful, generous guy my dad introduced us to in Mt. Home, who also happens to be a Pharmacist. I really like to say Chemist, but only the Brits really say that; he is a Pharmacist in Arkansas. He was surprised to hear about our predicament - instead of making the medicines he advised Sami might even be given half a pill instead of the liquid if she would take it.
So, our saga is not all drum and dreary. They say adversity brings brings people together? This certainly did for us.
It gave us a real, honest scare at times when we were sort of lead to believe there was a chance one of our girls might be TB active; I really glossed over some of the anger and frustration Laurie and I went through during this period. But I have to say it really did bring us very close to our girls and brought to or family a new level of closeness, and I suspect, brought to Sami (and even Laura) a new level of understanding how their new Mommy and Daddy are trying to take care of and protect them. In retrospect, this is a great thing that came out of this. Another was the compassion of our doctor friends who walked with us while we made some of these decisions.
Maybe this is what the Bible means by God causing good to come out of bad. While I do not think God planned for our girls to get sickly just so I could write a testimony about nice people, He can see when things are not going well, and by the power of prayer, and His will, He can and sometimes does change things according to His purpose. Praise God for that! Thank you Wendy, John and Mike!!!!
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