[Jessi_76]

Hello everyone,

My husband and I received one of our two referrals today. Woo hoo!! What an exciting time. We are beside ourselves with joy right now. We expect the next one in three weeks when the girl comes off the database.

There are several things of concern to us on the medicals. We have already contracted with an IA doctor to review our referrals, however we have not yet forwarded the referral, which we just received an hour ago.

Long story short, our biggest concern is "Perinatal affection of the central nervous system." His mother was also a carrier of Hepatitis C, although his test, done at 11 months old, was negative.

Any first-hand experiences with either of these issues would be greatly appreciated. We are accepting this child no matter what, as we believe it is God's plan for our life, and are willing to deal with whatever comes out of it. He needs a home and we will give it to him.

Thank you so very much for your time!
Jessi

[mschweber]

Perinatal affection of the central nervous system is the type of item commonly seen in Russian medical records which U.S. doctors consider to be meaningless.

[Ebadge90]

I agree. My son was also listed as suffering from perinatel affection of the central nervous system. My son was also born hepatitis C and HIV positive. The negative test is the key. The rule of thumb is 3 succesive negative tests can be very certain that the child is negative for the virus. Ask when the next tests will be done. The positive test usually is due to antibodies passing through the placenta from the mother to child.
Send the info off to the IA doctor as soon as you can. But, needless to say, it is up to you to feel comfortable with what the doctor and others tell you. Accepting my sons referral was the BEST thing that I have ever done in my life. Bar none.

[pwnort64]

I can't be certain, but I believe that this diagnosis is included on almost all referral medicals. It means something completely different to the Russian medical profession than it does here. The blunt way it was explained to me is that the child is "damaged because the first mother may not have cared for herself during pregnancy since she obviously didn't want to keep the child".

I have no idea if I am allowed to post this link, so remove it if it is inappropriate, but this website discusses common diagnosis and their true meaning. THis one is covered under Perinatal Encephalopathy
Russian Adoption Medical Report Interpretation

[Jessi_76]

I cannot begin to thank you both so very much for your prompt and heartfelt replies! I appreciate it more than you know.

He had Wassermann reaction in Dec. '07 - negative (I read this is for syphillis - it also says "clinical and serologic syphilis control" and by reading, it looks like that's a treatment given to children at high-risk for the disease to help them from contracting it??

Hep B was negative in Sept. '07
Hep C was negative in Oct. '07
HIV was negative at birth in Nov of '06

Any idea how far apart the tests should be spaced?

He also has "asiderotic anemia" which we consider to be no big deal. He has also had pneumonia.

We will send out the referrals tonight. Our IA team said they will review within 48 hours so we should have the conference with them on Friday.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have already made up our minds that he is ours, so regardless of what the doctors say, we will accept the referral. However, it's stll nice to hear first-hand experiences from others who have walked in these shoes.

Have a great day,
Jessi

[Jessi_76]

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm reading the link you sent right now.

[heikewould]

Samantha had Perinatial Encephalopathy and our IA Dr. said it meant she was born. She also had Hyperexcitability, translation happy, excited baby.

Wait for your IAD to review the information. All those big words are scary.

By the way, congratulations!

[Jessi_76]

Thank you for the congratulations, and the advice, Heike. "Scary big words" really is the best way to describe them. Thank you!

[MamaChinch]

Wonderful News!! Yes, it is so exciting!
"Perinatal affection of the central nervous system." appears on most all the medicals. You will find almost everyone here will say there's had it. It was explained to me very similar to what Paula and Heike said but really means nothing.
Your IA doc will let you know what the real concerns are and how they will need to be addressed!
Gosh, I am so happy for you, I am sure you are flying high!! Congrats!!!

[Jessi_76]

Thank you SO much Cyndi! "Flying high" describes it!!! You nailed it! I'm going crazy right now...I cannot concentrate or function. All I do is stare at our sweet boy's picture and read his report over and over again. My husband came home when we received the email and we looked at it together, but then he had to go back to work for a meeting. I'm DYING! He NEEDS to come back home, like now! My parents are coming to dinner tonight to see his picture and hear all about him. It is such an exciting day...one to go down in our family history forever.

Have a wonderful day, and thank you again, for your response!

[cathvash]

Congrats on your referral! Just to reinforce everyone else - If THAT one is the biggest concern, relax!! -Also often called "perinatal encephalopathy", it means that since birth is a traumatic process, the assumption is that stress was placed on the brain during the process of being born!

You might consider asking for repeats for any labwork only done one time, although it is unlikely a child would convert to a "positive" after being negative.

Good luck!

[Pinkie]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! I can feel how happy you are and very much remember the day I was given Antonina's referral. Truly one of the best days of my life. Good Luck with your journey.

[Jessi_76]

Thank you for the reiteration, Cathvash. It really is our biggest concern, and you have all eased my mind so very much. I greatly appreciate it! I'm also really glad to hear that negatives after positives aren't very common. I will definitely check on having him retested.

Pinkie ~ It really is one of the best days of my life. I'm excited and restless, and just don't know what to do with myself. We've wanted children for almost six years now and it was worth every single day of the wait just to see his picture.


Have a wonderful day everyone!

[votemom]

how old is your referral? i know our girls could not be adopted out until they had tested negative for HIV at 12 months and at 18 month. (both moms were positive, so this was the biggest issue for them.)

it IS such an exciting time -i'm very happy for you!

[Jessi_76]

Thank you, votemom! Our referral is 17 months old. Born in November 2006. It does not say that the birthmom had HIV, but it does sound like she had syphillis and she had Hepatitis C antibodies. He has tested negative for everything, but each test was only administered once. HIV at birth and the rest were done between 11-13 months of age. He has also had pneumonia.

I appreciate your help and interest. Thank you again.