[nocarguy]

I have lists of the medical conditions used by Russian doctors and our referral is healthy from the medical information given. I had our family doctor look at it and the pictures and he does not see anything that warrants concern (FAS, asymmetry).

Is there anyone here who did not have an IA doctor review the medical information that was given to you?
Would you mind sharing you experiences with me?
Thank you so much!

Paula

Apr 08 Applied to Agency, completed home study, filed I600a
May 20- Received referral of 26mo girl
May 23- Accepted referral
----Waiting to travel----

[votemom]

we did not.

i'm not recommending that, we just didn't.

i don't really have much to share about our decision, except that after meeting them and spending time with them, we had no significant concerns and would have said "yes" no matter what might have been said about them.

[becky26]

We used an IA doctor for our first adoption (received video prior to traveling). We were not really impressed with the doctor. He did not say anything that was not obvious to us. Our second adoption was a blind referral. We had a Russian doctor lined up to meet our girl in the hospital. But we felt so good about her that we did not use him in the end. I am sure it is quite different if you are seeing the child in person. However, I think that you may well go without an expert's opinion. Personally, I feel that some information about the birth mother is very important (esp. age and the number of pregnancies).

[randloar]

We both did and didn't use an IA doc.........huh?
Well, we got our two referrals, had our IA doc at our Childrens Hospital look them over and go through it with us. We traveled despite our concerns about both of them in different ways.

We got there, and our son, despite clearly being tiny for his age seemed healthy and we knew sending further information back wouldn't change our minds.......we left it as was having talked with our IA doc pre-travel.

For our girl, the one we had been referred was 'gone', so we were now traveling blind. One child we met to us (we are nowhere near the medical profession for our careers!), but, to us, she had medical issues we were not prepared to deal with, despite being told by the docs at the baby house how 'healthy' she was. We turned her down without consulting a doc..........then after some confusion we met our future daughter.......she was on the verge of walking at 11.5 months, and none of the information they were willing to share from her record would have been helpful to diagnose any potential for FAS by our interpretations (and we had previously talked with our IA doc, and researched on this topic), and literally, nothing else they told us could have possibly helped distinguish anything.....we brought her home without any IA insight and have never regretted that choice!

For us, it was useful to talk with our local IA doc (he definitely has a different eye for things than a general practicioner), to help calibrate ourselves for what to expect, and what Russian medical items can be red flags.........that being said, we were very comfortable incountry NOT calling an IA doc with our girls info.........really seems like a personal call and a comfort of your family with medical terms.

Good luck in your decision!! You will know what is right for your family.

ps..If you want more info about our IA doc, pm me, he did everything over the internet and phone and was quick and easy to talk with. No need to be local. Oh, and for us, it was nice that their fees were way lower than some of the big names, yet we still got a lot of information from him that helped.

[kretzklan]

We did and didn't also. Our first two referals - we sent in to an IA doc in our town that we had used for a pre-adopt consult. We didn't feel like the information swayed us although he said it was fairly clean - we just didn't feel that they would ever give a definitive YES or NO.
After losing those children, we did not use an IA doc for our second referals (now our children). We felt that we would meet them and make the decisions necessary for our family. It's turned out wonderfully.

[mommyto4]

Our first child we had a pedi knowledgable in IA do the review, only because our agency highly encouraged it for their clients. We were traveling to meet her no matter what the dr. said, based on the info we had she seemed healthy. Our next children were blind referals, we used no DR. and felt very comfortable after meeting the children in person. Best wishes!

[Ebadge90]

We did use an IA doctor in a childrens hospital close to us. The thing that intrigued us about the IA doctor that we used was that he is Russian, and there would be no question concerning the translation of the Russian medical information. If/when we adopt internationally again, we will use the same doctor.

[nocarguy]

Thank you very much for your responses. They have been quite helpful!

[momraine]

I did not use one for either adoption.

[angelkisses0102]

For our DD's adoption we did not use an IA doctor prior to accepting her referral...we knew she was high risk and had minimul medical info so we just went ahead and accepted. We did have a doctor meet us in region to examine her but that was more to prepare us for what to expect rather than to help us decide. She won our hearts the instant she was brought into the nurses lounge. Her issues were 'correctable' (surgery, food, and a family) and we got lucky in that she had no issues tarnsitioning or PI issues.

On a side note...we did use a top IA doc for DS...he was listed as a low risk...happy and healthy but skinny baby boy. Sadly, DS had/has a whole host of struggles related to his first 8 months of life. I do not fault the IA doctor...he only could work with the info that was presented to him...and there was no way to know at that one snapshot of time how proufoundly impacted my lil' guy was. Plus his eye condition was not able to be seen at his young age at referral.

Good luck...

[proudmommyof 2]

We didn't use one for any of our kids.

[verukasalt]

We did not use one either. We felt very good about the information provided and seeing the picture. After our first meeting we had no serious concerns that we felt an IA doctor would need to address. We brought him to a specialist when we arrived over 2 months ago and no issues. We went with our instincts and it worked for us. However, I can certainly see both sides and understand why others choose to use one.

Good Luck and Best Wishes!

[Jessi_76]

Hi Paula,

We are adopting two children, who we just met this past week. For the first referral on 4/23, we did not use an IA doctor (although very little information was provided to us); for the second referral on 5/15 (lots of information was provided), we did use an IA doctor. After visiting them, they are both perfect, and we are completely in love. I believe it's a very personal decision, and while it's logically the best choice, if you are open to potential minor correctable medical issues and know what to look for yourself based on a checklist, then you may not need to.

For us, we still feel extremely guilty that we did not jump on our daughter's referral the way we jumped on our son's. I wish we could go back and do it over and immediately accept her referral without sending it to a doctor first...it depersonalized our experience. We were more cautious with her, and honestly, after meeting them, we should have been more cautious with him, and less with her. You just never know!! We spent the money, the IA doctor gave us a lot of information, but all-in-all, thought our referral was very healthy, and she was!!

Good luck!~
Jessi

[Jessi_76]

I also meant to add that like the PP, we did not see any concerns while there in the orphanage and have no plans of exercising our right for a second review. When they are home, we will bring them to the specialists just so we know what extra care they need.

[k8c]

Originally Posted by randloar

For us, it was useful to talk with our local IA doc (he definitely has a different eye for things than a general practicioner), to help calibrate ourselves for what to expect, and what Russian medical items can be red flags........

I'd love it if you'd post this! (The red flags alone would be helpful.) Puhzhaaaaaaaaaalsta?