The morning after I arrived in China I immediately took the children to get the health exam to enter school. We were assigned a local hospital that tested the standard height/weight/hearing/eyesight, and in addition to that they did a full blood draw. I am told that the condition of this hospital is quit nice compared with others in Beijing, but once again – very dirty and tired looking. You can just tell that everything is very, very old.
I took Gavin into the room first knowing that he would be the bravest of the two boys and I didn’t want Gavin to hear Sam screaming and get really scared because he is bigger and more difficult to manage. I had explained the procedure to Gavin repeatedly over the previous weeks - how they would tie off his arm, find a vein, and when they put the needle in it would feel like a little prick that would be a little painful. I told him he had done it as an infant once and had been so brave that he didn’t even cry, but that it would hurt a little and that he’d have to be brave.
When I sat Gavin in the chair, things started happening so quickly, and the translator was sitting outside with Sam. They pulled out a cup of needles quickly grabbed one and stuck it in Gavin’s arm before I fully could understand what was happening and do something to stop it. I felt sick in my stomach. Gavin cried bravely saying – mom it hurts. Then I showed him the blood going up the tube and he calmed down a little because he was then fascinated by the process. After it was finished he asked me if he could see it on video....I knew he would want to see it, but with all that was going on I just couldn’t film it.
BTW, if you leave Beijing you may have to do the health exam all over again. I am not sure how they monitor where you have been, but I have been forwarned.
Sam was next. Sam cried, and he lectured me all day about how I shouldn’t have done that to him and that he wasn’t going to be my best friend anymore. Sam can really hold a grudge, and he is so cute – it is funny and endearing.
The results wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday (4 days later), and it was a school requirement so the boys, and I had some fun seeing things around Beijing in the interim.
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