On Monday this past week, we took Leah to her first appointment at the International Adoption Clinic. There were no surprises! Since heart defects are common in people with Down syndrome, the doctor listened carefully to her heart and did not hear anything abnormal. They recommended we make a dentist appointment, an appointment for a hearing evaluation (because she has likely never had one), and an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist because she has strabismus (eyes cross) and nystagmus (eyes rapidly move back and forth involuntarily). They gave us a kit to collect stool samples (what fun that has been) to drop off at a local lab so they can test for parasites. At the end of the appointment, she had to have a lot of blood drawn.
Leah did very well considering that they had trouble finding
her vein. They had to poke her twice, and both times they moved the
needle around a lot to try and hit the vein. Just before I was sure they
were going to have to try a third time, they found it. Of course a few days later we received a call with some of the results, but were informed there was some kind of mix-up and they didn't take enough blood. So we have to have more drawn at the next appointment! Argh. I'm normally very understanding that mistakes happen, but this was quite irritating. Thankfully, the tests they did run were all normal.
I was able to take her to the dentist on Wednesday. Leah did beautifully, and the dentist and his staff were very nice and patient with her. She has one rotted tooth up front, and we have an appointment in January to get it removed. No cavities, though! She does have some teeth that are simply not present, which the dentist told me is common with Down syndrome. The only way to tell if the adult teeth are there is to do x-rays, but there is no need to do those immediately. We will just wait until she gets older.
The hearing appointment is set for January, and the eye doctor for February. I was really hoping to get into the eye doctor much sooner, but this particular doctor specializes in children and comes highly recommended from multiple sources, so we'll wait.
Peter and Thomas sang with the kids choir last week Sunday night at our church's Christmas concert. Thomas had a giant grin on his face the whole time:
Some pictures from Peter's school concert (see my previous post for videos):
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| History chant - it was cold at Valley Forge :) |
And Ruthie's preschool had a Christmas program too!
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| The after-party |
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