Frankenstein Baby Heads to Bangkok

I so very wish I had a picture of our adventure at the hospital yesterday but between lugging around CT scan films, a diaper bag, and a twenty pound baby, my camera bag did not make the cut.  We were able to make it in for an EEG yesterday, and Sami was transformed into a Frankenstein baby with 30 multi-colored wires glued to his little head.  Quite a pathetic sight!

When the nurse first started to apply all the censors, Sami was not a happy guy.  He writhed and protested as she measured his skull and made blue marker dots across it.  Finally, the frustrated nurse asked me to put him to sleep so she could work.  Easier said than done for a 9 month old whose entire life & routine have been disrupted by another international trip on top of daily visits to the hospital!  But by the grace of God, a lot of prayerful begging, and a lot of rocking, I managed to put Sam to sleep so the nurse could work.  It took her a while to finish wiring him up so by the time she was ready to begin the sleeping EEG, he was awake.  She must have assumed I was some kind of miracle worker or baby whisperer when she asked me to put him to sleep once more.  So after a lot more prayerful begging, a lot  more rocking, and a lot of benadryl, he was out again and the testing began.

There is something very strange & surreal about watching your baby hooked up to a bunch of medical machines.  Thankfully, this test didn't cause him any pain but instead steadily measured his brain waves as he slept.  He was pretty angry, however, when he woke up to still find all the sticky goo and wires on his head.  He was even more angry when the nurse took them all off!

So right now, the status is that we have an MRI scheduled for Saturday at 8 AM, so we've been asked to arrive at the hospital on Friday at 3 PM.  That should be a fun night!  We've completed the EEG but there apparently is no doctor available to read it.  I was informed today that the doctor will be in Australia until July 29.  The problem with that is that since the boys haven't finished their US citizen naturalization process, they are still traveling on their Ethiopian passports. Ethiopians can only stay in Thailand for 15 days so we have to leave on July 31.  We can't go back to China because we only have a double entry Chinese visa for the boys, which means that we would have to get another Chinese visa for them in order to go home when all of this drama finally concludes.  Another option would be to exit the country into Laos or Myanmar and then re-enter in order to apply for another 15 day Thai visa.

But that still doesn't address the question of how we'll get the EEG read for Sami.  The answer to that seems to lie in Bangkok.  One of the best hospitals in southeast Asia is in Bangkok, and it seems that might be a better place for us to take care of our little guy.  We would have to change our flights, but that seems like a small price to pay to be able to hopefully get everything we need in one location.

So more than likely, we will end up in Bangkok next week.  Yet another installment in this great adventure called parenthood!