You're kidding me, right?

Just when you think you can’t possibly blog about another day spent running around from clinic to clinic in search of this Eagle Seal, you experience a day like today.

Having left the apartment before it was even light out, again, we headed to Irkutsk to meet up with Alex & the N family. The day always starts off innocently enough, and then, well, once you walk up the snow covered steps of that first clinic, you just never know. After a half-hour wait in the mandatory coat check line, we followed Alex & Irina up to where the N family was waiting for us. First on the list today was the “Infectionist”. We’d had blood drawn at our previous visits to this type of doctor before, so what the heck – how much worse can it be?

Well as is customary, Alex & Irina enter the room first and consult with the Dr. A thin, 60ish man, who actually appeared sorta easy going. A few minutes later, the Dr. steps out of the office and Mike is called inside. I find it odd that the Dr. is OUTSIDE the office, as if he is standing guard, while the patient and interpreters are INSIDE. After a few minutes Irina & Alex emerge, and Irina approaches me, warning, “Judy, you should just be brave”. “Why” is my immediate response, and then she attempts to explain, but stops and says ‘Mike will tell you”. “No, you tell me” I say, and while it’s clear she wants to, for some reason, the words don’t come out. 1o seconds later Mike emerges holding a large test tube with what, in the dimly lit hallway, appears to be a light colored liquid. “Phew” I said, I just have to pee in a bottle. “Not exactly” Mike says, and brings me into the room to explain.

Okay, I’ll start by telling you it’s a test for gonorrhea. Secondly, I should tell you it involves a 8-10” swab. And third, since both men and women both endure the same test – that pretty much narrows it down as to where the swab goes. It then gets put inside the tube and you walk outside and hand it to the Dr. who remains in his position, guarding the door. One by one we all entered, endured, and emerged. And then we were led downstairs to be tested for more infectious diseases.

This time I’m called in first. I’m told to sit in a chair, and while I’m getting comfortable, I see a nurse approach with a test tube that looks just like the one I used for the first test. I I figure they’re gonna keep all the specimens together. But then she opens the tube, takes out the swab and starts waving it at my face. HUH? There is NO way that swab is going in my mouth! Almost at the point of panic, I look again at the tube, and realize it’s way to small to be the same one, and open my mouth. The nurse – or Dr. – whoever it was then swabs my nose. Then opens another tube and does my throat… I’m tempted to go outside and tell Mike he’s next, and that they’re trying to save on swabs…but think better of it…

We also saw a Neurologist today, and a Physician. We have 6 seals now. And Thursday at 8:00 (mind you court is at 10), we will return to the clinic to get the results of these tests and get the 7th seal. Irina & Alex have found that the remaining exam by a TB specialist , cannot be done by a clinic with a seal because none exist in the region. So, she got letters from the TB clinic we’ll go to tomorrow stating as such. This SHOULD satisfy the judge. Our last hurdle is Skip. Our Attorney says after consulting with the Judge’s Assistant, we won’t need a full 8-Dr. medical for him, just a detailed pediatricians report. Mike is looking though our paperwork now because we’re fairly certain we have one that is still valid (less than 3 months).

The day itself was again long, but today we had more opportunity to get to know Debbie & Brian. In fact, Brian entertained Skip most of the day, since, like fools, we forgot his backpack with toys and his portable DVD player in it back in Irina’s brothers car. Not sure I mentioned but he has been our driver this week since Vova is back to work. Yesterday Skip was pretty shy around them, but today, he wouldn’t leave them alone. That’s Skip for ya.

Tomorrow we have to take one more trip to Irkutsk to get what we need from the last doctor, and then of course, we’ll grab the remaining signature and seal at 8:00 a.m. JUST before court….

Once again, we are really grateful to have Irina as a friend. She has been friend. Coordinator, Facilitator, Translator, Tour Guide, and today, the bearer of embarrassing instructions. There is little else she could possibly do for us!