21 July 2004 - First Medical Check-up

Took the boys in today for a thorough check-up.

There are cysts and some other bizarre things in their stools, so we sent the samples out to a lab to find out which critters are living inside them. (Whatever critters they are, they're also living inside me.)

Nicky's ear is still showing some signs of infection. On the bright side, the doctor was unable to spot any of the scarring on the ear drum reported in Ukraine, so it may be that Nicky's slight hearing loss is entirely due to the current infection. If so, this is excellent news. We'll know after the current infection is cleared up and we can see inside the ear more clearly.

Nicky also appears to have some kind of minor urinary tract infection, although the doctor thinks it's chronic rather than acute, and is going to wait to treat it until after the ear is cleared up.

Zack had some scalp fungus, and also turned out to have a heart murmur that every doctor in the Ukraine somehow overlooked. It seems to be a "flow murmur," which is benign and usually resolves without treatment, but we'll know more after checking the enzymes from his blood tests and an echo- cardiogram. In all likelihood, it won't give him any trouble or need any attention (although it may keep him from participating in varsity sports if it doesn't resolve by the time that's a concern).

Otherwise, they appear to be healthy and strong. Although nothing's ever certain in this life, it appears likely they're free of any major (and most minor) health problems.

In the next couple of weeks, we'll go to a pediatric ENT and opthomologist to make sure hearing and vision are on target.

Language acquisition proceeds at a startling pace. I'll spare you the tedium of reporting each new word as they learn it, but it's really exciting and fascinating to see them pick up English. Zack somehow has a slight "baby lisp" in English that's completely absent in Ukrainian, but it's cute and appropriate for his stage of development, so I'm not worried.