Day 2 clinic

     Thursdays clinic started at 7:45am. We were assigned a room and each discipline came into the room to discuss Willow's care needs. We talked with a social worker, a dietician, a dentist, PT and OT but of course what I was most interested in was what the dr's thought.
    According to her X-rays, Willow has had @ 100 breaks in her short life. She had a very recent break which is not well healed and yet she goes 100mph and complains of no pain. She has had @ 7 infusions of a bio phosphate which helped in making the decision of her having an infusion before we left Omaha. It added 3 more hours to our day but will keep us from having to worry about this for six months. The infusions as I understand them help her bones retain cells while her body makes new ones. (OI is partially a problem of your bones flushing away cells faster than it can replace them.) Her bone density is low but not terrible. The doctor allowed us to do a 1 hour treatment of a newer drug rather than the 2 day infusion which needs to be repeated more frequently. Willow remembered having this done in China and had no issues with the IV, needles, blood: everything I have issues with.
     We talked with the surgeon about options for surgery. Willow was interested in the X-rays and told the doctor through a translator that she had surgery in Shanghai and it was no good. She asked the doctor many questions through the translator. Can you straighten my legs? Will I be able to walk? Will it hurt? He was impressed with her choice of questions and how much she seemed to understand.  She has had a lot of medical in her short life. Oddly, she gets very independent when it comes to hospitals and pushes me away. I hope she can soon trust me to look out for her medical interests. The doctor said she will need extensive surgery and gave us some options for how to proceed. We are discussing and hope to have a plan for later this summer after she has gotten more acclimated to our home. He stressed that she is a happy child and could go through life as she is and still be happy. The goal of surgery is to prevent/reduce breaks in the future. (I know how bad she wants to walk. She told us she used to be able to walk.)
     Our translator was wonderful. She was amazed that we adopted her knowing she had OI and thought it was a wonderful thing. Her and Willow chatted nonstop about the orphanage and her new family which was something Willow needed. We were asked many times why we would adopt a child with a severe handicap; the answer doesn't change. We love her because God first loved us.