At Ella's regular doctor visit on Monday she received her two scheduled vaccinations and we did the ppd test for the first time. She had the BCG Tuberculosis (tb) vaccine in Viet Nam, so I ignorantly believed that her test would be positive because of the vaccine and we'd have nothing to worry about.

So I took her back to have the results read yesterday (Wednesday) and it was in fact positive. I kept telling the staff "she had the vaccine in Viet Nam" as they measured the reaction site and had me schedule an appointment to speak with the doctor.

Last night, armed with my trusty and much loved internet access, I began to research positive ppd tests in internationally adopted children. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a bit of information out there. The first thing that shocked me was that just because a child had the BCG vaccine, a positive ppd test should not be taken lightly. We don't know if her reaction is from the vaccine or from being exposed to someone with tb.

Ella's reaction site measured 5 mm, which totally puts us on the fence about what to do. Our pediatrician (who is an international adoption specialist as well) sent us for a chest xray (which was clear)and is not too concerned. She feels that we should do a follow up ppd at 15 months and not worry in the meantime. Well....I'm worried anyway.

If she had measured 2 or 3 millimeters I would feel comfortable assuming that she was testing positive from the vaccine. If she had measured 7 or 8 millimeters I would feel comfortable starting her on the preventative treatment. So what do we do for a 5 millimeter reading?

I'm going to post some of the research I found, and would really appreciate anyone's feedback. We're going to take a few days and think it over. If we decide we want her to have the treatment, who knows if our doctor will be supportive of that. She didn't give us the option of treatment-I just know about it from my own research. I've never been a fan of medicine, but when it's my daughter who's potentially at risk, my all-natural way of life goes completely out the window.