Let’s see…we got our own “fellow”. He is a doctor that is doing his training in Ped. Infectious Disease, and he has to follow a child with HIV. He has a beeper 24/7, and we can call him any time. Also, I wrote last time that we would see this doctor, Dr. A, at this appointment, and then would transfer over to his partner, Dr. P. Dr. A is a Ped. Infectious Disease doc and also specializes in international adoption, so he usually sees kids for one or two appointments and then sends them on to their regular pediatrician or another specialist if needed. His partner is an HIV specialist, and is the one that usually does the appointments with the HIV kids (although both doctors work together on the HIV cases).

When I asked if we would be seeing Dr. A next time or Dr. P, the nurse kind of laughed…she said that Dr. A has taken a “shining” to Belane and me, and wants to “keep her” as his patient. The nurse smiled and said, “Usually he passes patients on now, but he is not giving Belane up.” At the end of our appointment, Dr. A told us that he was going to be Belane’s doctor long term. I thought it was really sweet, and I also think it is awesome for her to have a doctor from Africa. We love Dr. A and so I was really thrilled that we get to stay with him. (And our “fellow”, Dr. B, is great too).

We asked a lot of practical questions at this appointment.

We asked about how careful we had to be about exposing Belane to sick people, germs, etc. They said that we didn’t have to be overly careful, and didn’t have to treat her any differently than our other kids, even now, before she is on her meds. The only thing we will do differently with her, is that any time she gets a fever over 100.4, we are to bring her in to the doctor.

We asked how careful we had to be with her around our other kids in normal day to day life (as to not spread the HIV), and again, they said we didn’t have to do much. They said obviously you will handle blood spills with rubber gloves, bleach, etc., but beyond that their only “caution” was not to share toothbrushes, and when she gets older not to let her share razor blades. Nothing else “special” needs to be done.

We asked about life expectancy. We were told that her life expectancy is very close to normal, and would be the same as any other child with a chronic condition, such as diabetes. He pointed out again that HIV is now just a chronic and very manageable condition, and that he thought she was going to do extremely well long term. It was really exciting and encouraging to hear.

Belane was very good for her blood draw again…she held out her arm, turned her head into me and cried, but sat perfectly still. Luckily she has great little veins that make the blood draws really easy (for the one drawing the blood). She stops crying as soon as they are done and back to her happy little self within minutes. She really amazes me.

So, that is the Belane medical update. We go back in two weeks and will be officially starting her treatment. She is doing very well overall, and the concerns that they do have, they believe will be resolved in a fairly short period of time after she starts her medications. I can’t even put into words how happy I am that we have such an awesome medical team for her…they are great at what they do, they are compassionate, sweet with Belane, easy to get in touch with…we couldn’t ask for more. Ok, I guess I could ask that they were an hour or two closer to home, but that would be asking a lot. :)

More soon.