The Averages Prove True

Well, the results are in. I took Clara Anne and Chloe to get their TB tests read last week and sure enough, the averages that I was told about have proved true. Previously, I had been told that the BCG (the immunization against TB) only "took" in about 50% of children, and so of my children, only one (50%) tested positive--Clara Anne. It was pretty obvious; Chloe's arm looked normal and I could hardly tell where she had been pricked, whereas Clara Anne's arm had a nasty red welt at the site of the injection. So this means that Chloe has not actually had any coverage from the injection she was given at birth, and she has a scar (on her hip) for nothing. Clara Anne's BCG was effective, and thus the positive results.

So on to the next step: a chest x-ray was ordered for Clara Anne, in order to rule out actual TB. We spent a better part of the morning at a children's hospital this past week, waiting, getting registered, waiting some more, and then finally getting the x-ray done. When it was finished, Clara Anne was the happy recipient of some Dora stickers, so she thought it wasn't bad at all! I spoke with the technician and asked her if I could have some proof of the results to submit to my doctor, so that she could be cleared of this issue. However, the technician could not officially "read" the results for me, but she offered to send them directly to the doctor. Great, I thought! One less step for us! But then as I prepared to give her our personal doctor's information, she said she had to send it to the doctor who ordered the x-ray, which was a man I had never met who worked at the TB clinic here in Louisville. So I could just go and get the records from his office at a later date.

I was running out of time, anyway, that day, so I just headed home and figured we would stop by the TB clinic sometime later in the week. John did that by himself one day, as he was out running errands, and discovered that he was not able to pick up the records without seeing the doctor, and that Clara Anne would also have to be present to have the doctor look at her! Unfortunately, they told us we needed to make an appointment and suggested June 22. But we're leaving Louisville on the 18th! Finally they said they could squeeze us in on the 11th, tomorrow.

So, tomorrow we will pack up Clara Anne and trek back to the TB clinic again. This will be the sixth time we have been to their offices! It's getting a little crazy. The truly ironic part of this is that we could have taken an extra minute to have this test done during our physicals, before we came back to the States, but we didn't because the girls had both had the BCG, and so usually a child will test positive for the first five years of life--our understanding was that the skin test wasn't necessary until 5 or older. A lesson learned! But at any rate, hopefully tomorrow will close the book on this issue and we can all move on, already! However, there is a silver lining: neither of my children have TB!