The Day That I Admit That Two Are Harder Than One

Today was a heck of a day. We left the house at 9:30 for the doctor's office. I managed to schedule Tommy's three year check up and Nic's first ever appointment at the same time, saving myself an extra trip, or so I thought. We arrived early, and were seen early (amazing). The appointments were blessedly uneventful. Tommy passed his check-up with flying colors, and Nicolas appears to be in tip top shape. I say "appears" because we still have to do his bloodwork and parasite tests, and those could unearth something icky. The doctor wanted Nic's bloodwork done as quickly as possible, of course, because we can't move forward with vaccinations or treatments until we have confirmed that he is HIV negative (which was already done at his visa medical appointment, but has to be done again). The doctor had a whole list of tests that he wanted to order (which is good), but he didn't know if the county health department was going to require any extra testing based on Nic's country of origin. So, the nurse had to call the health department to find out so that if they did require something else we could add it to the bloodwork being ordered and not do two separate blood draws. Oddly enough, no one at the health department was answering their phone this morning, so we were given the option of waiting, leaving and coming back, or doing this tomorrow. We decided to leave and come back, because we didn't want to devote two days to the doctor OR sit in the waiting room for hours, even though our doctor has a very nice waiting room and super sweet nurses (who gave me a bag of formula samples that should get Nic through the rest of the week since his bad mother forgot to pick up formula last week at Costco...love them). We amused ourselves by going to Buy Buy Baby (which is basically Bed Bath and Beyond but chock full of more baby stuff than you could possibly imagine), Chipotle, and the Yorktown play place. Finally, finally, the doctor's office called and said our paperwork was ready and we could come back.

At the doctor's office they explained that they could do most of the screenings at the in-house lab, but that one set of tests had to be done at the hospital. Ugh. We did the major blood draw at the office, and it was horrible. I hate hate hate having to hold him while they draw vial after vial of blood. I know it is necessary, but I hate it. Then we trekked over to the hospital, where Nicolas was admitted as an outpatient, a process that took three hundred years. Then we sat in the outpatient lab children's room for another hundred years, then the nurse came in and told me that they forgot to have me fill out all the paperwork while I was waiting, so I filled out even more paperwork. Next they had me hold a hotpack to Nic's heel to get his blood flowing, or something, then they did some gross thing with a little cup that they filled with blood and smeared all over a special paper. Tommy never did this, so I was not familiar with the test. Apparently they do it to newborns, but it is easier with a brand new baby because their heels bleed more readily. The nurse who was administering the test looked at me like I had three heads when she read the order, and then asked me repeatedly how old Nicolas was. It was obvious that she thought I should have brought him in a little sooner, which I might have were he living in the US prior to last week. She also had to verify multiple times that I didn't know his birth weight or the time of his birth. It all began to feel a bit absurd. It was fairly clear at that point that I did not give birth to my sweet son, as we look nothing alike and I clearly stated that he was adopted and came to the US last week from a developing country, and thus I feel it should not have surprised her that the hour and minute of his birth were not recorded. Yet it did.

We finally made it home at 4:30, thus the appointment that I thought would take an hour or hour and a half tops took up seven hours and all of our energy. I could not have done it without my mom along for the ride (Thanks mom!), since she watched Tommy so that he could stay in the waiting room instead of watching his brother suffer, which I think would have really disturbed him. All I can say is, at least this day is over and we are done with the doctor. At least until we have to start vaccinations next week...