Julia and I went off to Childrens-Boston this morning for her appt with the Psych Dr. We get into the room, and there is a resident Dr for Psych alongside with regular Dr, sicne childrens is a teaching Hosp, that was ok. The Dr wanted Julias history from scratch from the time we arrived in Ukraine until we got home 14 monthes ago. After I was done answering the attending Dr questions, he tells me what an amazing thing we have done for Julia, and that we really did save her life, pat myself on the back for fighting for her to get meds back on board, even though the meds were completly wrong, so she wouldn't continue to have withdrawls, giving her life as she didn't have any. He reminded me of last year when he first saw Julia, the tiny, frail, sickly, malnourished, didn't even know her name, unable to make eye contact, just existing, no sparkle in her eyes, dull affect, less communication than she even has now, and seeing how she now has life, the medical care she has received, a loving family, she has really done well. I told him about the Neuro note, and how I interpreted that as all of Julias issues are DS related, I told the Psych I didn't think that was the case. I asked him if the antipsychotic she was on in Ukraine for yrs could have caused some degree of brain damage, he said yes, probably in her case, I asked about the possiblility of atrophy to her brain from severe neglect and barely any stimulation, "yes, this could be another possibility, and she has some abnormality of her brain as she is really unable to speak, even in Russian., just 2 clear words in English, eat and knees. The dr wanted to check this out more, and called Translator services, but the person that spoke Russian was unavailable, bummer. That would be interesting if she started speaking to him/her in Russian than we would know it's an English language barrier perhaps. Before we got there, the Dr spoke with one of his collegues, who had done his residency (many moons ago) in a Turkish institution, said it was a very scary place, and has never forgotten it and would it be ok to meet Julia, this other Dr eventually came into the room, very nice older gentleman, has worked in Eastern Europe, Israel, Turkey, Greece, has lectured around the Globe, etc. At one point he started to get teary, and left the room, and came back after hearing about Julia and how she lived. He was very moved by her strory. Than a med student knocks on the door, and says "oh sorry, wrong room", and the Dr's invite her in, they tell her of Julias story, she asks if it's ok to listen, guess the Dr's have the authority of who stays and go's, but I said sure, come in, the didn't object either. Turns out she is a med student in Psychology, and hearws about Julias story, the Dr tells her Julia has a brother with DS, who is a great kid, very high functioning, etc..etc. The student would really like to do a Psych paper on Matt and Julia, differances of kids living in the US with DS, and kids in Eastern Europe with DS, loving families V orphanage living. We will keep in touch about that, I don't mind. The dr also feels just give Julia some more time about her "funkiness" after all she has been out of Ukraine only 14 monthes. He feels that she is need of way more speech, he wants school to increase speech time, and see if insurance will cover speech for her and he will contact Children speech dept on our behalf for more. Also sees how she will do in the future, and think of some communication devices with voices for her if she's not really speaking. As we were leaving, the Psych Dr told me "maybe you should have been a Dr" I told him "maybe I should have". I felt pretty good after this appt, it was a really good thing WE, not just me, did for Julia, we really did save her life.