Two Days, Two Long Nights

The first evening with Lily, we had a scheduled visit to our hotel by Dr. Gong, a pediatric cardiologist. She came to us with a pretty bad cough and a lot of congestion in her chest. After examining Lily, Dr. Gong suggested that we go ahead with the course of antibiotics we had brought with us and keep her fever down with Tylenol. Lily's first night with us was a tough one for her. She had "GI" problems and a fever. Since her condition seemed worse on Tuesday morning, we contacted Dr. Gong and he suggested it was best if Lily come in to his office at the Children's Hospital for some tests after our morning appointment. He said we could wait until we had our scheduled morning adoption appointment.

The morning appointment was back at the Jiangsu Registration Service Centre For Foreign-Related Marriage, where we waited with about 15 other adoptive parents to go through two different stations where we were questioned. Would we treat Jiang Jiang well? Would we ever abuse or abandon her? We answered correctly and were allowed to sign the papers. Jiang Jiang is now officially ours! Now that she is ours we have to take care of her, so off to the doctors' office.

We went to the Nanjing Childrens' Hospital where Jiang Jiang had heart surgery almost a year ago. We went to see Dr.Gong who was so very kind to us. He went out of his way and "fast tracked" the process for us. We had our young and very competent guide, Sandra , with us (it would have been impossible without her). It was totally different than any medical experience we have ever had. We had to register, which Sandra did for us, we then waited to see Dr.Gong. No line, no appointments, just a throng of parents with their children pushing forward to be seen. There is no patient privacy, everyone is watching and reading what the doctor does over his shoulder while they push closer to be next. It is not Mayo Clinic. Dr.Gong listened to her lungs and heart and decided she needed to have a chest x-ray, a CBC and give a stool sample. He printed out orders from the computer. Doug and Sandra went to stand in line to pay for the tests. We then went with the receipt to the x-ray, lab and the specimen departments to have the tests done. We (Sandra) then went back in 30 minutes to collect the results, then we went back to Dr.Gong's office. He had cleared out all of his patients' and was waiting for us. He decided that the antibiotic she had taken was bothering her intestines and that she needed IV Amoxacillin as well as something else written in Chinese and pedialyte which we had already discovered was by prescription only. So off Doug and Sandra went to stand in line and pay the cashier and pick up the meds while I again held a sick, feverish baby girl. Dr.Gong then walked us to the next building, gave the Amoxacillin to the pharmacist to mix into an IV and took us to his favorite nurse who he says gets 99% of her IV sticks in the first poke. She put the IV into JiangJiang's forehead. It probably took her less than 20 seconds from looking for the vein to all hooked up with an IV and on to the next kid. We then joined the hundreds of parents in the hallways sitting on chairs with children on their laps and IV bags hanging from hooks on the wall. JiangJiang had 2 IV bags to go through. When the first bag runs out, a parent or grandparent runs to get a pink clad and hatted nurse who comes to change to the second bag. It took about 4 hours for the IV's. We were at the clinic for about 7 hours and the total bill was $74. Dr.Gong came to check on us before he left for the day and told us to come back the next day again for another IV :(

Day 2 with baby girl. We went to breakfast with our friends Lisa and Chris and their new daughter Abby whose beautiful smile is amazing! They commented on how much perkier Lily seemed, and she did have a nice bowl of congee (rice porridge). Everyone went on a tour of Nanjing except Lily and Deirdre. Lily took a nice long nap and when Doug came home there was only an hour before we had to meet Sandra to go back to the clinic. Same song second verse at the clinic except that baby girl was feeling a bit better and there was no way she was going to just sit in mom's lap and the floor was to germy for her to walk on. Thank goodness it was raining and we had a Jinling umbrella. We followed suit with other parents marching around. Deirdre held, jostled and jiggled the wiggly and frustrated girl while Doug held the umbrella aloft with the IV bag attached and Sandra handed out crackers, for both hands. Turns out it takes 3 people to take care of one baby in China :) After our 4 hours were up we took our very frustrated little girl out in the rain to wait for a cab in rush hour traffic. After about 10 minutes (felt much longer) a non-cabdriver offered us a ride at 50% over the going rate which is $1.20, we took it! The JinLing Hotel never looked so good!

So the frustrated baby alternated between doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for a while tonight. Her Mom and Dad alternated taking her on a long walk and elevator rides and she finally quieted. She fell asleep on Dad's chest and was moved gingerly to her bed. Tomorrow is her orphanage visit and we hope to all go if Lily feels up to it, otherwise it might just be Doug and the O'Connells. We have 12 or so kiddos to photograph for waiting parents and we know from experience how important that is. Nite nite and love to all!

Chris, Abby, and Lisa at Final Adoption

Deirdre & Lily at Final Adoption

Lily getting her IV

Downtown Nanjing, near the Museum

Her first halloween costume! (on for less than 5 minutes)