12 Month Checkup: Everything seemed to be normal, then...
Ayana had her 12 month check up a few weeks ago and I am just now getting the time to post about it. The pediatrician thought she looked very healthy and the visit went well. Although the Dr normally advises that a baby start to ween off formula at 12 months, she asked that I keep Ayana on formula for 3 more months because we do not know what kind of nutrition she had for her first 9 months while in Ethiopia. She did switch her to a formula for older babies. She can also eat some table foods.
Ayana weighed 22 pounds!!! She is now in the 50th percentile in weight and the 25% percentile for height. Praise the Lord, she is growing and developing so well. She now has a whopping 7 teethe with her molars also trying to cut through. (I forgot how cranky babies get when they are teething.)
Anyway, I wanted to have her blood tests redone just to make sure that the info we got from Ethiopia was accurate and the doctor agreed. They had to take 8 small viles of blood, poor baby. It was not a fun 2 minutes. They tested for Hep A, Aids, allergies and other common diseases.
While at the doctors office we had lots of visitors come into the room. Apparently, others doctors and nurses in the office had heard about Ayana and wanted to see her. Everyone was so nice. Ayana really got a kick out of her "mini fan club".
Fast forward, I get a call from our doctor's office on Friday. I was working and didn't realize that I had missed a call so I listened to the message and it was the Pediatrician telling me that she was calling with the test results and to please give her a call. The doctor's office was already closed so I had to wait until Monday. So I called back and got the nurses voicemail and then I went to teach a class. During the class, I missed her call back. Dang! So I called the doctor's office and told them that I was dying here and to please overhead page the nurse so I wouldn't have to play more phone tag. I sat on hold and then the Doctor answered. Wait? Why is the actual doctor talking to me and not the nurse? Is that bad or normal?
So anyway, The doctor comes on the ohone and says that they got Ayana's test results back and that she is a very healthy baby. Whoo, that was a relief. She kept talking about the tests and said again, Ayana is a very healthy baby. Ok, wait, I get the feeling that there is more. She asked, Did the US Embassy or Centers for Disease Control call you? I said, Uh, NO! What the heck? Why? She said, Ayana has Hep A.
She began to tell me that Ayana had Hepatitis A in her blood work. OMGSH!!! I am confused. I asked what we need to do to treat and she said we don't need to do anything. She probably had it in the orphanage and is now over it with no symptoms. She has built up antibodies to it so it is still showing up in her blood stream.
Once you recover from hepatitis A, you develop antibodies that protect you from the virus for life. An antibody is a substance found in the blood that the body produces in response to a virus. Antibodies protect the body from disease by attaching to the virus and destroying it. This is how we know she must have had HEp A in the orphanage. This was not mentioned on any of Ayana's medical reports so I don't know if they didn't know or didn't report it. The doctor said she is NOT contagious anymore.
This news just blows my mind because when we picked Ayana up she had Giardia, scabies, double ear infections, upper respiratory infections and had just gotten over chicken pox and now we find out she also had Hep A!!! It is just the Lord that she is alive! How her 14 pound little body took all that at once, was truly the Lord looking out for her. God is Good!
The day of her check up:
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