On Monday of this week, I took Melanie to the pediatrician to her TB skin test read. It was positive, but before you go buying a mask and gloves, I feel 99% confident that it is a false positive. In Kazakhstan, as in many other developing countries in which TB is still prevalent, they commonly vaccinate the babies with what is called BCG against TB. (Do you feel like you're swimming in alphabet soup??) Depending on how long it has been since the vaccination, it can cause a false positive skin test. But the state of North Carolina doesn't care about that ... we were summarily shipped off to the Mecklenburg County health department for a chest x-ray. Melanie thoroughly enjoyed being clamped into a child-shaped vise with her arms above her head. I have to call back tomorrow to see if there are any signs of active infection (which I doubt). Nevertheless, the ped. tells me we will have to treat her with a 9 month (yes, month) course of a serious antibiotic that can have some pretty serious effects on the liver. I need to do some more homework about this. I think I'm going to call the international adoption (IA) clinic in Seattle who did our initial review of Melanie's medical history way back in the spring. I know they have run into this before, and will have some good advice.
Other than that ... let's see. David is in Maine & Nova Scotia all this week looking at trees. (He works for a major insurance company, investing in the timber and forest products industry). He is toiling away taking helicopter tours of forests, relaxing at a lodge in the woods, with, I'm sure a poker game or two thrown in. Poor guy, it's a tough life. I was hoping I wouldn't have to fly solo with a quintet of children quite this soon, but his job does pay the bills, and after all he was gone for about a month! With things as hectic as they are, David is probably glad to get away! And I am managing quite well, thank you very much. Keeping Melanie on a strict nap and bedtime schedule is essential to my sanity. Yesterday we had (1) the health department, (2) uniform store since the kids have all grown a foot in a month and don't fit into their clothes any more (3) nap, (4) Boudreaux, the dog, to the groomer, since he was starting to look like a dust mop and kept bumping into things for all the fur in his eyes, (5) pick upColin from an after-school club meeting, (6) pick up dog (7) Lisa to piano, (8) Colin to tutoring (9) help Christian study for a test (10) quick run to grocery store at 8:30 p.m. because we're out of lunch meat. And I even got a load of laundry done in between! I am woman, hear me roar. (Actually I did roar a few times yesterday, unfortunately!)
Today we have absolutely nothing to do ... nowhere to be. It's 11:00 and Melanie will have lunch in 30 minutes and go to bed. I may go to the grocery store and prepare a hot meal for my children for dinner. Not that they'll like it ... ("it's got tomato chunks in it!!") but at least I tried, right?
I don't mean to sound whiney ... I love my life, but some days are more challenging than others. David and I were able to get away on Saturday for a nice dinner alone. We celebrated Lisa's THIRD gotcha day Friday night (she chose Mexican food -- there seems to be a dearth of Kazakh restaurants in Charlotte'; go figure! Guess I could have fixed lagman or something ... nah!)
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