I think I mentioned in the previous post that we've come to the promised land when it comes to beds. Even Ian, who prefers a firm bed, said that our beds at the Novotel were on the "rock" side. And while the breakfast buffet was quite good up in Beijing, the one here is even better than I remembered it being from our stay here 10 years ago. Such a wide variety, and the bacon, oh the bacon...
It was a good thing that we had a great night's sleep AND a superb breakfast because just after that things went south for a bit. We came back up to our room to grab our passports and Nicholas' paperwork in order to head to the medical appointment and encountered a bit of a problem. Grant was able to get into his room, Mom was able to get into hers, but our room was inaccessible. The key caused the light to turn green, but nothing happened. The doorknob wouldn't turn. We tried several times with no results, so I headed downstairs to find Lee, our guide, after Ian's phone call to the front desk (from Mom's room) seemed to produce no results.
Lee helped translate the issue to the hotel worker as he wanted to simply rekey our room. When I explained that the light was green but the knob didn't turn he looked a bit surprised but mostly kept a poker face. Next a maintenance worker was called and the problem was explained to him and so he accompanied Lee and I back up to the room. In the meantime Ian had talked to one of the housekeepers who was also unable to get into our room for us. By this point I was about ready to kick the door in as we literally had our kids and the room key on us...everything else was locked inside the room. When the maintenance guy was unsuccessful at getting in I just about lost it. He tried twice with no results but the third time was the charm and mysteriously the door opened without a problem. By the time it was all said and done we were running about 30 minutes behind, but thankfully the medical is a "first come, first served" type appointment and not a specific time.
Speaking of which, overall Nicholas knocked it out of the park. He hopped up on the scale, had his height taken like a pro, didn't flinch as his blood pressure was taken and passed the eye chart test down to the very bottom line.
Everything checked out with the brief ENT screen...I just love that it was the same doctor that checked Kylie ten years ago.
This isn't so much related to the medical exam, but several folks have asked about his oxygen saturation and how we're tracking it. Ian bought one of these handy dandy little things before we left home and while we recognize that it isn't 100% accurate, it does help us track trends and is within 5% either way.
He also proudly came out of the room where they drew blood to check for TB smiling and proudly proclaiming that he didn't cry like the babies when it was his turn. The only "station" that he didn't pass with flying colors was the general health. Apparently his heart defect doesn't translate very well. Or upon hearing that he has not yet had any corrective surgery they were in disbelief because kids his age aren't supposed to still be alive without medical intervention. They flipped through the records we have, asked questions, listened carefully to his heartbeat, held their hands on his chest and left the room to confer. Eventually though they decided that we realized his condition is serious and sent us on our way.
We've been told that his heart appears to be "so broken that it works" and yet we're hopeful that after we get home that he'll be a candidate for a two surgery process. The surgeries could greatly improve his heart health which would be fantastic, his oxygen saturation dropped drastically today after wrestling with his brothers on the bed for a few minutes. One thing is sure though, whatever we learn at his cardio appointment, we love this little guy and are grateful for the gift of him in our lives. His smile is pure sunshine and you just can't help but smile back.
No comments:
Post a Comment