Abraham came home with a few health problems. A few we were aware of and a few we were not. To start, we knew he had some scalp ringworm. Justin noticed a little bit on him when he traveled for the first trip. Well when we got back to pick him up a couple months later his head was completely shaved and his ringworm had taken over!!!! It was so bad! (Understatement of the century) I will not post his before picture. It is just too awful. And little buddy was still smiling. When we got home we started him on some oral medication that took 8 weeks to clear it up. Then he was left with HUGE bald spots where the ring worm was. I can officially say that all of his hair has now grown back in! Thank goodness because the doc told us that sometimes it can damage the hair follicle and the hair will never return.
Head after the 8 week treatment
All grown back now!
Next up we found out that he had some decayed teeth. We did not know the extent of how bad until we got home either. The dentist said it was probably from malnutrition and he hopes his permanent teeth won't cause him any problems. There is more to this story but that will come later.:(
He also tested positive for giardia. Which is a parasite found in the intestines. One quick pill took care of that pesky little bug!
Finally we also found out in Ethiopia that he had a hernia above his belly button. Got home and the doc said he needs to have surgery. Say what?! Okay one more thing to add to the list.
The dentist referred us to a pediatric dentist. So knowing (so I thought) that the hernia surgery was more important I decided to put off going to the pediatric dentist until after he recovered from his surgery. Fast forward a few weeks to the night before surgery. All was well. I took Abraham and the girls out for ice cream. He looked great. Nothing wrong.
It was late when we got home and we put him to bed. Again happy and normal looking kid going to bed. Well a few hours into dozing off Abraham starts to moan in his sleep. I thought 'Well that's strange" and did what any other good mother would do....peek in, see he's okay, and let him stay asleep. :) Never wake a sleeping child! EVER! Well the moaning went on throughout the night. I just figured he was having bad dreams or something. On the morning of surgery out comes Abraham with a HUGE swollen jaw!
Crap! What the heck is happening? I looked inside his mouth and saw nothing. Well it was too late to cancel so we just brought him in. Doc says in not so plain words that he will "Not be touching him" today and we will have to reschedule. Says he has some infected teeth! Great.....but wait....if stay in the hospital and wait until 3:30 in the afternoon there is a dentist on call who can come and see him.
Now if you have ever had surgery you will know that you can't eat or drink anything for several hours before. The last food Abraham had was at 9pm the night before. So you are telling me that I have to make my former starving child wait until this afternoon to eat???? Well this is another time where he amazed us. He did it! We were going crazy by the time the doctor got there because keeping a toddler entertained in a hospital setting for 9 hours with no nap can be rather, lets say, challenging. Plus they thought it would be fun to get some x-rays of his mouth in the meantime. Not just the regular old x rays either. The kind where you have to, get this, hold still for 2 minutes with your chin in a chin rest, while biting on a plastic bite guard, not open your mouth the whole time, while wearing a lead vest as the machine circles your head. SUPER FUN! After several failed attempts we had to drug him. And Abraham on "chill out drugs" is a cool, calm, super giggly guy but also limp as a noodle. So we did our best to prop him up against the x ray machine. I think it worked because they let us leave after.
After "chill" meds. Swollen but happy!
So at 3:30 the doc comes in and says "yep we need to remove 2 infected teeth"! "We can get him in to a surgical room by 4:30" and that was that. Oral surgery instead of hernia surgery.
He did great. The anesthesia nurse came to tell us how sweet Abraham was when he went to sleep. Smiling and counting to 10! Once he woke up from anesthesia we went home. As we were getting in the car to leave I sat in the back with Abraham. He kissed the back of my hand and said "Thank you momma". Oh buddy! You are heaven on earth. The sweetest boy around! He must have been in pain and just never let on that he was hurting.
Okay so fast forward one month and we are yet again at the hospital for surgery. This time for the original hernia surgery. Yet again he did great. I was unsure of how he would react to being there again but he didn't care. He charmed the nurses yet again:) So we are one week post -op now and he is doing good. It's hard to keep a 3 year old from being a 3 year old. He's limited himself some but we need to remind him to not jump off the couch or superman swing on the play set.
As far as the transition of becoming a part of our family, I would say he did WAY better than I had prepared myself for. It was like he was just waiting for us to come get him. He never looked back and took to our family amazingly. I would say the harder adjustment was with my younger daughter. She wasn't so sure of him in the beginning. We have come a long way since January though. There still is some squabbling but the normal "I don't like you because you are my sibling" kind. The play well together for the most part and we are all getting into the groove of this new family dynamic.
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referral picture
3 months home
6 months home
Love love love this! Seeing him grow and how well the transition is going warms my heart. So sorry for the health issues, but thank goodness he had you to get him all better. You are a lucky mama!
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