Our most interesting cultural experience so far. . .

Wednesday evening Marley really let loose with some howling, screaming and crying. It was the first time she had ever done that, and it was pretty much impossible to figure out what was wrong. She really screamed anytime we laid her down, which we thought might be because she came to us with a pretty sore bottom and was afraid we were going to change her diaper. We've been applying a good coat of diaper cream every time we change her, and I thought she was dreading that experience. Well, Thursday morning when she woke up, the cause of her distress was evident--she had a horrible mess of gunk oozing out of her right ear. After all of the ear infections that Keller & Casey have had, I can't believe I didn't figure this out right away on Wednesday night. But, like her brothers, she had absolutely no fever, so we didn't think of an infection, strep, or anything like that. Although she seemed much better and still wasn't running a fever, we knew that an ear infection would make flying incredibly painful for her, so we were anxious to have her seen and get her started on antibiotics to prepare for our short flight to Guangzhou on Monday. We called our guide and asked her to set up an appointment for us at the foreign clinic here. It is $110 USD just to get in the door, but we were willing to pay whatever the cost to avoid going to the Nanjing Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, the clinic was closed for the 3 day New Year holiday.

So. . .we ventured out to the hospital. Jean came to the hotel to meet us so she could translate for us at the hospital. We felt a little bad taking her away from her family on the holiday, but she was gracious and didn't seem to mind at all. First, we weren't able to get a taxi because the city streets were all closed for a New Year's celebration. We still don't know if it was a race or a parade, but there were groups of people wearing matching sweatshirts and carrying flags who were running through the streets for about an hour. Once the streets reopened, we got a taxi and headed to the hospital. Here is a video of the first floor lobby. It reminded me of the mall on Black Friday (as seen on TV--I personally would never venture out on that shopping day!):



The chaos that ensued was crazy! First we went to a desk, paid 3 yuan, and got a little pink ticket and a receipt. We took an escalator upstairs to where there were even more people, more different service windows, etc. Our number was 285 and the board showed they were serving 274, but Jean butted into an exam room where there were two doctors sitting at desks with computers, and about five families crowded around each doctor. The families were all interrupting each other, cutting in front of each other, and all were talking to the doctors at the same time. But no one looked annoyed at all, not even the doctors. This is just how it is. The doctor agreed to see Marley pretty quickly, but we had to take her for a blood poke in her tiny finger first. That meant running out into the hallway and going to a different window to pay another fee of about 53 yuan, and having her finger poked. At some point in this process, Marley pooped and it was pretty loose, so we scooped a little bit of poop and Jean ran it to another window to see if they would test it for us. We had to pay another small fee, maybe 15 yuan. The worst part was that we had to change her by laying her on these dirty chairs in the waiting area. I asked Jean if we could take her into the bathroom to change her and she got this horrified expression on her face and said, "I think here is much better." Later on we got a peek into the bathroom and let's just say her words were an exponential understatement. Yuck. Jean ran around to go see the first doctor again while we waited for her bloodwork and poop test results to come back. We were pretty proud to recognize Marley's Chinese name being called over all of the chaos. Dave ran up to the counter to get the results, but of course there were five slips of paper there and he didn't know which one said her name on it. I ran up and said her name to the doctor in my best approximation of how it should be pronounced, and luckily he understood and handed over the results. We went back to the original doctor and he listened to her heart, looked at her ear briefly (with no instrument, light, etc.) diagnosed her with an ear infection and a cough. He said he thought she needed IV antibiotics, which would have meant having her hooked up to an IV drip for 2 hours each day for 3 days. No way!! He prescribed some cough medicine for her, but then we had to go see a different pediatrician on the 5th floor to get a prescription for an antibiotic and ear drops. Jean attempted to butt in front of a bunch of families again when we went to the second pediatrician, but she very curtly told us to wait. Jean said that the difference was that it was 11:45 and the doctors all have lunch break from 12-2, so that doctor didn't want to see us and end up taking a late lunch, basically. I can't blame her at all. The chaos of having people jostling for your attention and barking questions at you non-stop makes our "over-worked" doctors seem a bit whimpy :) The doctor we ended up seeing confirmed the ear infection and said we should come back at 2pm so they could use some special machine to clean out the wax and pus. A machine?? She said it would be very painful, but it would clean it quickly. Again, No way!! Instead she used some very thin q-tips to clean out as much as she could. Although Marley screamed the whole time, the doctor was very gentle with her. Skip the next sentence if you have a weak stomach. The first hunk of gunk she cleared out of her ear was so thick and wet it looked like butterscotch pudding. I warned you! It was so gross. Double yuck. The doctor prescribed oral antibiotics, but said that if she gets a fever or her ear seems worse, we need to go back for an IV. We hurried downstairs to the pharmacy area. Jean cut line (again) and handed all of the prescriptions to a cashier and we paid 75 yuan for all of the medicines, then we took the receipt and ran over to the pharmacy windows where she cut in front of about 10 families. We came home with a bag of medicines and a new perspective on how China attempts medical service delivery to their huge population. Nanjing alone has 7 million people, so it is easy to see why the children's hospital is so chaotic. I forgot that at some point in the process, we had to run back downstairs to the main lobby to have Marley's temperature taken at the original check-in area. That was where I got my first reprimand by an old grandma because Marley only had one pair of fleece pants on, and two pairs of socks pulled up to her knees. I tried to tell her that she had already pooped through her warm tights and other pair of pants, but all I could muster was "she pooped." Our entire time at the hospital was less than an hour, but we were seen in two different consultation rooms and visited about 7 different bank teller-style windows where different fees were paid or things were done (temperature, finger poke, poop test).


Waiting for bloodwork


Chaos at the Pharmacy counter


We're getting out of this crazy place!

I asked Dave if he was upset that he missed out on seeing the Drum Tower and Bell Tower that we were planning to walk to on our own in the morning and he said he thought the hospital was a more interesting cultural experience! Once we got home, the reality of needing to give Marley all of this medicine by myself after Dave was leaving sunk in. She needs to have her ear cleaned out with warm hydrogen peroxide and then lay on her side to let it drain out. After it has drained, she needs two drops of Oflaxin (our boys have used this many times at home). She has to take an oral antibiotic that comes in small packets and looks (and smells) like strawberry kool-aid. And then she also has vials of Chinese medicine that is for her cough. The antibiotic and cough medicine have to be taken 3x/day and the ear cleaning/drops need to be done 2-3 times/day. She is not very happy about any of this, to say the least.

We had to say 'goodbye' to Daddy at 5:30 yesterday so he could fly to Beijing where he will spend a night before flying home tomorrow. Marley waved bye-bye to him, which was the first time we had seen her do it. When he was going out the door, she started to cry inconsolably. She has really taken to him and I won't be surprised if she turns out to be a total Daddy's girl. I distracted her by blowing bubbles for her, which I think may have been a brand new experience for her judging by her reaction. She was very quiet and watched them with such curiosity. We also watched a really pretty fireworks display outside our window. There are fireworks at least once a night here. Jean said that many times they are for someone's wedding day.


Dave & Marley on the Rooftop Garden at our hotel

As you can see in the pictures we've posted, Marley has a pretty big forehead and her head is a bit flat on the back. A little look around the hospital yesterday confirmed what we had read on-line and been told--flat heads are preferred here, especially for girls. Many families even put a roll of blanket or towel around a baby's head when she sleeps so that she cannot roll around and round out her head. They believe that it makes prettier pony tails and pig tails when the head is flat in the back. It is not something you notice in the adults unless you really look. But for us, being used to our round-headed boys, it looks different. Big or high foreheads are considered to be signs of very smart children/people here, so we have gotten a few comments from strangers about how smart she is! It's kind of funny and cute, but we do wonder if her head will round out a bit now that she will be spending so much more time upright. Once her hair comes in and she has some bangs, I don't think it will look that much different than other kiddos, and she's cute as a button regardless.

The weather here is supposed to be in the 20s tomorrow, and then snow on Saturday. I do not have a guide or driver set up for either day due to the holidays, although I can easily have Jean come if I need help or if Marley needs to go back to the hospital (heaven forbid, I don't know if I could handle that again, especially without Dave!). I think we will probably be spending much of the next two days in the hotel and maybe venturing out into the city a little bit. She really needs to get healthy quickly so that the flight Monday doesn't cause her horrible ear pain, so I don't want her out in the cold unless we need to go buy supplies of some sort. We're both going to be missing Dave terribly and the loneliness is already setting in for me. There will be some other adoptive families in Nanjing to receive their children next week, so maybe I will see someone arrive on Sunday.

We are doing sight seeing Sunday, will check out of the hotel Monday afternoon and visit one or two more places before heading to the airport to fly to Guangzhou Monday evening. I am so anxious to get there. I will be meeting up with 4 other families from our agencies, as well as 3 other families I have made friends with on-line over the past several months. Dave and I did a trial run of packing yesterday and I was able to send two of our three suitcases home with him. Marley and I will live on a few pieces of warm clothing here and then we have our lighter clothes for when we get to Guangzhou. It should be in the 60s or 70s while we are there. I have been hand-washing bibs and pj's for her, and I'll be wearing the same pair of jeans enough times that they could probably get up and walk out of here on their own! But I really didn't want to try to schlep two suitcases, my backpack with my laptop in it, an umbrella stroller and Marley through all of the airports on the flights home.

That's all for now. I woke up with a sick stomach this morning and have been sitting here washing down Pepto tablets with Propel. I think I'm finally 'stable' enough to try to get another hour or so of sleep.

Keller & Casey--I miss you guys so much and can't wait to be home with you. Daddy will see you on Saturday. Enjoy your last couple of days at Grammy's house!

Dave--I miss you so much already, too. As you said, this was a rather extravagant means of getting some downtime together, but I enjoyed every minute of it! Happy 2009 to all of you!