As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, RP is still catching up on her vaccinations from being adopted internationally. A week ago today she had her three-year physical and has officially grown 5 1/4 inches over the last year and gained a few pounds. I was concerned that she is still very small for her age, but the doctor was encouraged by the fact that she is now ON the height and weight charts - in the 5th percentile for height, and the 9th percentile for weight. The only concern she had, and it was a minor one, was that while RP is incredible vocal, she is still showing some speech delay in that non-family members should be able to understand 75% of what she is saying, and family members should be able to understand her at almost 100%, which is not the case. I can understand her about 60-85% of the time, depending on where we are, who is around, and what she is talking about, and non-family members probably understand her about 20-50% of the time. She told me to watch this, and if there is still a delay at the end of summer I should have her re-evaluated. Sigh.
Getting back to the vaccines, RP was actually ahead of the vaccination schedule here for some of her shots, but while her medical chart/history showed that she was completely up-to-date on her polio vaccine, her blood work last spring showed that she had never received ANY polio vaccination. Ever. None. Scary - but easily correctable. Last year RP had to have two shots, about 6 weeks apart, to start the series, and she had her third polio shot last week, which is an ugly, painful looking shot to the upper thigh. She also had to receive another shot to the OTHER thigh that same day, and I'm surprised she isn't still the same shade of purple she was that day from screaming - she has quite a set of lungs! After she calmed down (compliments of a red sucker from the nurse!) the doctor informed me that while she tested negative last year for TB, because she was internationally adopted she would like to run another TB test just to make sure - and if this test also came back negative we would be good on tests until RP enters kindergarten.
The TB test was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Monday - the Monday after Easter. Yep - I completely forgot until the office called in the early afternoon to gently remind me that I had forgotten, so we went in Tuesday afternoon instead. I told RP that it was just a pinch in the arm and not to worry, but when we got there and RP told the nurse that she was ready for her "pinch," the nurse shook her head and told me that the test is actually a bit painful and would most likely burn a little, and she brought in another nurse to help hold RP still enough for the injection. I felt like the worst mother in the world for lying to the poor child, and she turned a lovely shade of fuchsia during the process, yelling like a banshee! Again a sucker helped sooth the "boo-boo" and we went on our merry way.
This morning when I was getting RP dressed I checked the injection site because we were set to go to the doctor this afternoon to have the test read and get the results, and while I was happy that there was no reaction at the test site, I was surprised and concerned to discover that RP had broken out in a rash from her elbow to her wrist - only on that arm, and the bulk of it surrounded the test site. When we got to the office and I showed the nurse she was puzzled as well and ran to get the doctor. Both of them informed me that they had never seen anything like it before, but it definitely wasn't a positive test result, but rather it looked like RP came into contact with something that caused the breakout and that I shouldn't worry. I was so relieved at this that I was practically giddy - RP, not so much. While she was happy that this trip to the doctor didn't involve any shots/needles, she was mad (REALLY mad) that all she got for her troubles was a sticker. She wanted another sucker.
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