[leeinmemphis]

that turned out not to be true?

I'll never forget when we got to court the orphanage doctor stood up and said that William was retarded and that he only had one testicle. I grabbed Lee's arm and pinched it so hard I thought he would bleed... retarded?

The funny thing was when we did the embassy appt the doctor reached up and grabbed Will and said in sort of a russian accent "thees boy have two ba**s"! it was so funny!

fast forward 3 years, he is a smart as a whip child that no one can get anything past! Funny how that worked out!

alli

[GCS]

One testicle? Where did they get that? I know I shouldn't laugh but that would have cracked me up!

We were told that DS had serious health issues discovered after we had accepted his referral (trip one) and that we needed to be very sure that we still wanted to adopt him. The judge asked more than once if we wanted to see a different child. It was never an option for us.

The doctor had visited him regarding his terrible teeth infections and reported back that the infections had affected his heart and that he certainly had a heart murmur and probably would have problems with his heart the rest of his life.

We got our 10 days waived (never happens in Vlad) and brought him home and sure enough we had to have emergency surgery to have the infected teeth (11 of them) pulled immediately. But his heart was fine and continues to be. He's the healthiest kid you could meet. We will all get sick with colds lingering for weeks and he will have one rough night where he's coughing and the next day he is good as new. He's never been sick for more than a day in the 2+ years we've been home. I wish I had his immune system!

Christina

[SingleMama2B]

They stated that she had Stage III Rickettes.... As soon as we arrived home, we went to the doctor to have all checked so that "A" could get registered into 1st grade. She had NO signs of Stage III rickettes, just a very slight bowing of the thighs. All other things stated where simply crap.... They did not tell me about the Mircrocephaly, FAE, Malnourishment, etc.

No matter.... she is now very healthy, still playing catch up, but blossoming and thriving whereas her "Caretaker" said to me... "Why would you EVER want a child like this? She will NEVER be ANYTHING!!!"

[cathvash]

What terrible things they said to you all!!!

Thankfully, I have blocked out most of that memory. I remember sitting there and feeling the color come into my face. I remember feeling angry and protective of my child. I remember the frustration as they shook their heads at me and had a lengthy discussion about why don't Russians adopt more instead of these foreigners (an extra slap since my family actually came from that very region!) I remember thinking "She has___? They didn' tell me that!"

My daughter is perfect and mine forever! Court was just a few minutes of discomfort...

[MamaChinch]

The orphanage doctor had told me Delaney had a kidney abnormality (enlarged duct on one side) and would need to see a specialist as soon as we got home. My IA doc had reviewed the diagnosis and explained it to me and I was comfortable with this. In court, the judge asked me what preparations I had made to care for a child with this "kind of disability" !! What? I hadn't been told it was a "disability". Well, besides making the IA doc appt, I had made a nephrologist appt, as well. One mom travelling with me was a doctor and explained the condition to me and told me it was correctable and nothing to worry about.
When we got home, turns out the enlargement is minimal, and the IA doc said she was one of the healthiest IA kids she'd ever seen! She's only had a slight cold since coming home!
I think they sometimes try to make some of the health issues sound worse to get the 10 days waived. And try to minimize others to get them out of there. But we got ours waived thanks to chicken pox!

[momto4boys]

We were told as we were walking in to court that our son had mitral valve prolapse. In court we were asked if by the judge if we knew he had it and we said "yes." Of course we had just found out. The judge said he would need to be seen by a cardiologist and psychiatrist as soon as we got home. We took him to our pediatrcian and she ordered an EKG and ECHO and it was reviewed by a pediatric cardiologist and turned out there was absolutely nothing wrong with his heart.

The diagnosis did get our ten days waived!

[maddensmom]

Intracranial hypertension... what? Was never true.

[leeinmemphis]

I forgot to add (was reminded by seeing others responses) that they also said William had a heart problem and that Timothy had kidney abnormalities. None of these things were true.

These were NOT AT ALL mentioned at any of the visits to the orphanage thats why we were so shocked in court when the Dr stood up and said all that.

I just wanted others to know that what you might hear in court is probably overly exxaggerated for who knows what reasons...

alli

[amyfk]

we really didnt have the judge or anyone say anything that wasnt true. I was grilled for four hours, but the judge never said any untruths to us.

Amy K, NJ

[TweetyMom04]

"Very Sick Children!"

"Did we understand they have Perinatal Encephalopathy of mixed genesis late recovery period. Dyskinesia Syndrome. Umbilical hernia, Cyst of the Spermatic cord on the left, Functioning oval window and Anolmalously located chords in the left ventricle, and one testicle."

"Very Sick Children!"

One Russian Doctor stated his Daughter was diagnosed with Perinatal Encephalopathy and Dyskinesia Syndrome and he (a Physician) didn't understand what those were.

All healthy and okay today, no major medical problems found

[Annabell]

Hi --

We thankfully got our ten days waived due to DD's perpetual and dangerous (and misdiagnosed and untreated) diarrhea. We had many of the same weird diagnoses as above.

The thing about the "one testicle" is, unfortunately, something I DO know something about. It happened to our sorta Katrina rescue puppy -- one testicle does not descend into the scrotal sac. The net result for us was that his neutering surgery cost us $350 rather than the standard $80 or so.

(Oh, and this happened to Mary, Queen of Scots' little husband, the Dauphin of France, and is surmised to be one reason the marriage could never be consummated and the reason she never produced an heir before his untimely demise -- or so Antonia Frasier said). So yes, it DOES happen to all mammalia.