Oh the Joys of Third World Medicine

EVERYTHING IS FINE! For those of you who did some late-night praying for us last night, thank you so much! God is good.

We have heard stories of kids testing a false positive on these TB tests. All the parents head to the clinics wary of them because the tests are not reliable. We got a false positive this morning, so they sent Faith for chest x-rays. When they read the x-rays they told us she had possible TB, a lung problem, and some type of congenital heart problem. Obviously, we were not given the medical clearance that we need in order to get her home.

David took us to a respiratory hospital in the city. This made me really nervous because he told us it was the SARS hospital. They told me they were going to give her anesthesia and do an MRI. On the way there, in the cab, she fell asleep, and when we got to the hospital David took us right in, in front of the entire line of people waiting (I have no idea how he does that, but he always does). They allowed me to lay her sleeping on the machine! I was so glad because I was concerned about them putting her to sleep. And she slept through the MRI!

We waited in a hallway then. David kept calling the clinic doctor and putting him on the phone with the radiologist to push them to hurry the result (Mitch and I decided this would not work in the U.S.).
Waiting in the hospital corridor was a really different experience. It was nerve wracking because not only were we waiting for the result of Faith's MRI, but as we waited we kept inching further down the hall trying to move away from all the people gagging and coughing. I finally planted myself on the far edge of a bench at the end of the hall holding Faith while she slept. One lady came and stood about five feet from me and just stared at me. My first impulse was to turn away, because I was crying and extremely irritated. I began to turn away and then caught myself. I turned towards her, smiled, and said "Ni Hao". She immediately began to rattle off to me a mile a minute in Cantonese. I tried to show her I didn't understand. Her daughter came over. She spoke to her daughter. Her daughter said to me, "She wants to know why your daughter is Chinese." I explained and she relayed the information. She lady smiled and walked away....one mystery solved.

After another 30 minutes, David came out with the reports - it was a clean bill of health! A clear TB result... NO heart abnormality... and NO lung problem! Praise the Lord! David said the local clinics are giving out false positives often because they are afraid to issue the clean bills of health in case they are wrong. (Did you know you can get an MRI for $116 cash in Communist China?)

You know, yesterday was such an easy day... I should have known a doozey of a day was coming today. The reason it's so scary is because if they don't give you a clear TB report, you CANNOT bring your child home.

It's funny how perspectives change... this afternoon, in a crowded and noisy hospital on the other side of the world, where we couldn't understand anyone but David, with people who would just stand and stare at us, we, the foreigners, were able to just push past all the locals (whom David said have a difficult time getting care), and I thought about how we don't truly appreciate the comforts of home. As I thought about the possibility of not being able to leave for home and being detained here for longer, I realized how I live in an absolute castle in a free place.

We came back to the hotel, stripped down, washed from head to toe with anti-bacterial soap and we are.... you guessed it... hungry! We are going to take our healthy girl and try to find something to eat, and then get our laundry done.

Write to us. We love so much to hear from you. Thanks so much for praying.

Love to you all.

Miss you like crazy.