A Story of Love and Infection in |
I
woke up this morning with aches, pains, and sniffles. So I wasn’t sure
whether I should go visit Annabelle. I don’t want to get her sick after
all. But I was informed that health
of the child be damned (not really, just using poetic license) for I must go
and get my daily bonding picture taken.
Apparently, if I miss even one day, I’m screwed for court.
So
I donned a mask for our visit today.
I expected Annabelle to be horrified, but then quickly realized that
she’s used to seeing her caregivers in masks a lot so it was totally
normal to see the funny lady in one too.
She was asleep when I walked in so I sat down by her crib and waited for
her to wake up. When she did, she looked at me intently – probably doing
a retinal scan to see who I was – and then smiled.
Day 10_files\Annabelle Waking
Up.MOV
It
was also a shorter visit today because the new family, the Brookes’, is arriving
this afternoon to begin the process of adopting the other little girl who I saw
the first day. She and Annabelle
were brought over together from the maternity hospital and have slept side by
side ever since. Apparently, they hold hands through their cribs on
occasion.
Dr.
Natalia (head of the maternity hospital) rescheduled our meeting, but I did
meet with Dr.
Perinatal
encephalopathy
Premature
birth
Syndrome
of excitability (who knew that was a syndrome…?)
African
sleeping sickness
Yellow
fever
Dengue
fever
Malaria
Jaundice
Kidney
failure
Bad
eyesight
Polio
Appendicitis
Carpal
tunnel syndrome
…..and
last but not least,
Ebola
Well,
okay I don’t think she actually listed the last ten, but she might as
well have! The Kazakhs and Russians
take a very different view to infant health than we do. They basically start
with the assumption that most kids are born sick and have to overcome all these
illnesses just to survive to toddlerhood.
Throw in the fact that the Kazakhs courts won’t let
“healthy” children be adopted by foreigners (the healthy kids are
supposed to stay in
Speaking
of wasting away, or not, her last weigh in was April 22 and she weighed 7.5kg
or about 16 lbs. She was only 4.5
lbs when she was born so she’s really caught up.
Now
of course, my jaunty dismissive tone totally supposes that my visit today
doesn’t finish her off given her fragile health with the Ebola and
all…. Hopefully my cold in
combination with her carpal tunnel won’t be too detrimental!
That’s
it for today folks. I’m going to crawl under a comforter on the couch and
slip into a Nyquil haze.
P.S.
For those keeping track, I’m now in Day 4 in my battle with the water
authority. I have total confidence
of victory. *sniffle* *sniffle* I
will persevere! *hacking cough* J
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