Roller Coaster

After my emotional breakdown at Church today I thought I better get word out about all that is going on with Jack. We got a few medical reports that said that Jack is on target for everything except weight bearing. Then we got another that said he has something they call back knee. We were not familiar with the term back knee and neither was our doctor. We ended up doing a ton of research on our own and were not able to find much. Yet our biggest fears were that Jack would possibly have CP given his background yet after talking to mothers of children with CP we do not think this is the case. On his last well baby check it said they were going to do an "RH consult". After talking to some other adoptive parents with Children from Korea we assume RH to mean Rehab. We sent questions off to the Doctor in Korea last month to get some answers and clarify the information they sent. We asked if Jack was looking at being in a wheelchair, or have braces, or maybe just do some physical therapy to correct his back knee. On this month’s WBC it noted that he needed the RH consult ASAP. Why? Well it had been a month and he had not had it yet so the Doc was asking that it be done. He also jotted down that the thinks Jack's weight bearing issues would improve with physical therapy. (aka PT) So we assume that this consult was to verify that and set him up on a PT program. Sounds good right? Well medically we are very relieved to hear that his situation is most likely not as serious as we first feared. Yet... this appointment may prove to be an issue. Why? Because if it says he needs an appointment he will most likely get it before he is allowed to leave the country. As you can tell since he didn't have this appointment last month getting children into special appointments doesn't always happen in a quick manner. Travel has been held up for others waiting for their children to have appointments. So we fear that this appointment may hold up his travel until after Christmas. Our timeline as it was already beginning to get awfully close to the week of Christmas and now I fear with this added appointment on the list he just may not make it home for the BIG day.

Now... on to the "back knee" since I am sure some of you are very curious. Well it is described as the hyperextension of the knee joint when you look up the definition on the internet. Which in plain terms as far as we know.. just means that he is double jointed at his knee joint. So when he stands or puts weight on his legs they bend backwards. How much? We don't know. We assume it cannot be that severe or they would have diagnosed it sooner than they did. What do I think at this point? Well from the information we have been given from our doc, and the doc in Korea, I think Jack has the same knees as my brother and his daughter Autumn, my niece. My niece when she was little and would stand with us holding her, her legs would bend backwards at her knee joint. It actually looked very odd and looked painful to us, but never bothered her a bit, and her doc was never concerned about it. Furthermore it never affected her ability to walk and is not an issue today. My grandma tells me my brother's legs did the same thing when he was little. So am I worried? No not really. My doc says there are a lot of babies at this age that just don't want to put their legs down period. She assumes because his development in all other areas is right on target and he is obviously growing well, now 24lbs at 8 months by the way, that this is really not an issue. Could it be an issue? Yes. Is it likely to be an issue? No. He is creeping and crawling according to the report, and sitting up without assistance. So if he is doing so well and this is a minor thing, why did the doc bother with documenting it? Well Korea is very through with its medical reports for their children in the adoption process. They want every detail documented so that if an issue arises in the future they can say that it was documented. Because Jack has “weird knees” and is not weight bearing the same as other 8 month old children they do all they can to figure out why/get him caught up. I do not know if the Doctor even knows how close Jack is to travel. So that is not even on his mind. We hope that this week we will receive the photos and video to show what they are reporting so we can see for ourselves. It is hard to know from the two words of Back Knee what they are referring to for sure. Photos and videos usually come a few days after the medical report. Our agency has sent off the request for these if they have them, and has asked that their main priority is getting him home. If missing this appointment is not detrimental to his health. Yet others in the same situation have made this request and still the appointment was carried out and caused delay in the child's homecoming.
Pray that the appointments are done fast. He needs the consult, then visa physical, and his visa interview. Plus... Just to add to this list, it turns out starting in the month of November all children must be seen in person at the US embassy. So this too will add more time to our wait. We figured we would get a call within the next two to three weeks now we are not sure when it will be. The appointment for the RH consult was supposed to happen last month and didn't. So I am sure it is possible for it to take another month. Who knows?

It is all a guessing game and we get to be along for the emotional roller coaster ride. Pray for pictures and video, pray for fast appointments, and fast processing of his visa.