Elisona shows off her "battle scars" this morning from yesterday's doctor's appointment.(The band-aid on her leg is from the flu shot, her left arm is the TB test, and the right arm is from her blood work)
Wednesday saw us at that UK Clinic for Elisona’s first doctor’s appointment. Ellie did remarkably well especially considering the number of times needles were involved! We finally got some updated measurements for Ellie. I can tell you from experience that she feels like she weighs much more than the 22 pounds the scale read. She also has ‘grown’ more than 10 cm since her Albanian passport was issued (her height was just estimated while sitting in her stroller for the passport). I can tell you that she looked really cute in her oversized hospital gown! Ellie especially liked playing with the paper that covered the examination table. It didn’t take long for there to be several rips in the paper, and every time she would hear it crinkle beneath her, she would giggle. This general good mood lasted until the needles arrived for her TB test, and flu shot. To say that she was happy to leave the room after those pricks would be an understatement. I was worried about her mood since we still had a lot of blood to draw for the complete battery of tests they were going to run on her, but mom was smart and had the antidote – lunch! After a filling lunch eaten in the hallway outside of the lab (no food or drink allowed inside), Elisona was so content, she almost fell asleep in my arms. It wasn’t long until Bonita was ready for us. Bonita is the child specialist in the lab for drawing blood, and she was good! Elisona would have started crying immediately if she knew that the accordion list of labels were for all of the vials of blood that they would need from her. Mom was of little help in this section as she hid in the corner behind Bonita so she didn’t have to watch. Bonita explained that the more Ellie cried, the faster the blood would flow, so she purposely took her ‘thumb-sucking’ arm and went to work. She was successful in her first stick and Elisona was successful in her crying, so even though there were more vials drawn than I cared to count, only the one stick was necessary. The experience was exhausting for all of us, but only Ellie got a nap!
3 comments:
Bless Ellie's little heart!!! Sounds like she was a trooper at the doctor's visit. Do you have to return to get the reports of the tests? She'll never need that may tests again, hopefully. They are probably checking everything imaginable. I'm glad it's over for all 3 of you!! Love and prayers, Aunt Ruth
What do you mean by UK clinic? Surely you didn't have to go to the UK for this doctor's visit?
Did Ellie hold out her arms and smile entirely without coaching? You must have the camera ready at all times to catch moments like these!
Lucas,
This pose was entirely spontaneous on Ellie's part. We did have the camera out and had a couple of photos taken before this one, but were waiting for something better. Obviously, we were thrilled with this one.
UK is what locals here call the University of Kentucky. :-)
Post a Comment