China 2 Kellonds 0
So I got half way through posting about our trip to YouXian when we had to leave for our flight to Guangzhou. 48 hours later I have enough energy (barely) to sit up and type. Whatever bug had Steve sick on Friday grew in size and consumed all three of us. By the time we arrived in Guangzhou we headed straight to the hotel medical clinic. Steve’s fever was up to over 102 and he could barely walk. Anna’s fever was a solid 103 and I lied to the ‘doctor’ in the medical clinic telling her I felt fine because as soon as we walked into the clinic our mission changed from “get more antibiotics” to “keep us out of the hospital”. Apparently any one with a fever over 102 is required to be sent to the hospital to be quarantined for bird flu - mind you they never bothered to ask if we had actually been around any dead birds.
Luckily we escaped with some antibiotic and two mystery herbal medicines. I flatly refused their advice to give Anna an enema to “pull the fever out of her”. Good gawd let us come home!
Steve was up, feverish and delirious all night. I think he took a bath at 3am and I am not sure if he remembered it in the morning. All three of us spent Sunday sleeping in the dark. We were doing well enough today to eat a bit and take Anna to her immigration medical appointment. Luckily her fever had abated – we were worried they’d keep us here longer if it hadn’t.
Of course the “rash thing” on the back of her neck caused the ‘doctors’ some concern. I have to admit at this point I was about to loose it. They are questioning me about the 3-4 separate rashes on my baby – they gave us to her this way. Everytime we ask what we should do about them we get a different “voodoo” answer. First it was “feed her more water”. Uh, hello, my 9 month old baby eats 16 oz of formula a day – period. This girl does not need water, she needs nutrition. Next it was “she must be too hot” – a particularly ironic diagnosis given that we’ve been berated for the past 6 days for not dressing her in 15 layers of clothes (when you see the clothes we received her in you will be amazed). Today was the best though. The verdict from the immigration approved ‘doctor’? “You will need a laser to get rid of it”. Have I mentioned that we just want to come home?
I hate to admit but at the height of my frustration, feverish myself, and with a sick baby I had to bite my tongue not to tell them all where to go. I am an experienced mom with 3 healthy kids and am really in no mood to take wives tale advice from a country that seems to think it is OK to throw away their little girls.
Did I mention that the AC smells like it is blowing live mold spores into our room?
Hopefully we will feel better tomorrow. When we talked to the boys today I asked my dad to see if he could get our plane tickets moved up so we could leave on Saturday. Plus I heard we might get Anna’s visa on Thursday night – which means Friday departure is also possible.
PS – Thank you all for all the blog notes. It is totally keeping us going….even the one reminding me that I agreed to swim Alcatraz in exchange for the FF miles we used to get here!
PSS – my dad reported back that there is flight availability Friday morning. We just called about our visas. We are crossing our fingers – being home for Grant’s birthday would be AWESOME.
Luckily we escaped with some antibiotic and two mystery herbal medicines. I flatly refused their advice to give Anna an enema to “pull the fever out of her”. Good gawd let us come home!
Steve was up, feverish and delirious all night. I think he took a bath at 3am and I am not sure if he remembered it in the morning. All three of us spent Sunday sleeping in the dark. We were doing well enough today to eat a bit and take Anna to her immigration medical appointment. Luckily her fever had abated – we were worried they’d keep us here longer if it hadn’t.
Of course the “rash thing” on the back of her neck caused the ‘doctors’ some concern. I have to admit at this point I was about to loose it. They are questioning me about the 3-4 separate rashes on my baby – they gave us to her this way. Everytime we ask what we should do about them we get a different “voodoo” answer. First it was “feed her more water”. Uh, hello, my 9 month old baby eats 16 oz of formula a day – period. This girl does not need water, she needs nutrition. Next it was “she must be too hot” – a particularly ironic diagnosis given that we’ve been berated for the past 6 days for not dressing her in 15 layers of clothes (when you see the clothes we received her in you will be amazed). Today was the best though. The verdict from the immigration approved ‘doctor’? “You will need a laser to get rid of it”. Have I mentioned that we just want to come home?
I hate to admit but at the height of my frustration, feverish myself, and with a sick baby I had to bite my tongue not to tell them all where to go. I am an experienced mom with 3 healthy kids and am really in no mood to take wives tale advice from a country that seems to think it is OK to throw away their little girls.
Did I mention that the AC smells like it is blowing live mold spores into our room?
Hopefully we will feel better tomorrow. When we talked to the boys today I asked my dad to see if he could get our plane tickets moved up so we could leave on Saturday. Plus I heard we might get Anna’s visa on Thursday night – which means Friday departure is also possible.
PS – Thank you all for all the blog notes. It is totally keeping us going….even the one reminding me that I agreed to swim Alcatraz in exchange for the FF miles we used to get here!
PSS – my dad reported back that there is flight availability Friday morning. We just called about our visas. We are crossing our fingers – being home for Grant’s birthday would be AWESOME.
posted by C2K at 4:47 PM
3 Comments:
OHHHHHHH.. what's worse than a sick husband ? A sick Husband in China I think. I'm so sorry you all have gotten this " bug " ..I could smell the air conditioned air when I read this .. ahhh... guess kissing the ground when you get in won't be totally out of the question ..
We are anxiously awaiting " lift off " home. Keeping you close in heart & prayers .. the Skinners & Gerry's ...
I am mum to 2 girls from China (now 9 and 6.5 years old and very vocal about adoption, racism and families!).
It must be very hard to be sick in a foreign country, but I really do hope for your daughter's sake that you loose the attitude.....
Things like "in no mood to take wives tale advice from a country that seems to think it is OK to throw away their little girls." reek of Ugly Western superiority. As mum to a Chinese daughter, I can assure you that you will need to teach your daughter respect, love and acceptance of her culture, otherwise she will be conflicted in her identity. And if you don't believe me, ask my 9 year old. Hearing folks make derrogatory comments has caused her great deal of pain and has meant that I have had to spend a great deal of time in
(a) helping her general self esteem
(b) helping her learn about her culture, language, etc and make Chinese friends so that she can love and accept this part of her... which we need to be love too.
Anonymousy, you are at least partly right, although you go nowhere near far enough - these disgraceful neocolonial attitudes need massive denunciation, just ask angry adult adoptees.
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