Blog in the Mud

AS most of you who follow my blog have noticed, this blog has come to a screeching halt.
The bloggy Alphabet Challenge was derailed by the medical train this week. On tuesday we went into the Urgent Care center to check on a swollen neck my 14yo was complaining about.
No biggie - we thought rather naively. Well, we get in the office and the peds Doc says - "Hmm, I don't know what it is but the Peds ENT specialist is here today so can we have them check it out (Dr. Martin and a resident Dr. Ingle's who is AWESOME). So an hour later we get seen by Dr.s Ingles and Martin. They asked a bunch of Q.'s and of coursed listened to vitals, checked the swelling and said they thought it might be a Brachial Cleft Cyst - very benign - no biggie, just a nuisence......but we want you to get a CT Scan with Contrast so we can get a closer look. Now, at this point we had been at UNMH for around 2 1/2 hours with 3 kids who aren't really happy being there. They weren't sure how long we'd be there so I called the posse in - DADDY to the rescue who thankfully was let out of class early and took the kids (minus the 14 yo) home and fed the animals for us....whew! Alyssa braved the IV and got the CT Scan and they scheduled a F/U on Thursday at 9am. Well, we had no reason to believe that Thurs was going to be a crazy, scary, emotional, up and down day for us but we again NAIVELY went into the appt (with all 3 kids in tow and a few homeschool books to pass the time in the waiting room) thinking we'd be out of there in an hour or so and could hit Costco and the used book store. NOPE - wrong.
They hit us with "well, the swelling is a more solid mass than we suspected and she has a few other swollen Lymphnodes in her upper chest region - we want her to do a bunch more tests and here's what we are looking for : Door 1 - no big deal - still could be the BCC, Door 2 - TB, Door 3 - Lymphoma - the big scary C word, or Door 4 - other things we haven't thought of yet.......) Yep, I cried. And Aly the brave was great for a while. Momma called the posse again. Dad came to hold hands and offer strength (mom is a HUGE BLUBBERING BASKETCASE) and Grandma came to get the kids. And we proceed to go from test to test. First was the lab for blood tests and FNA (Biopsy). The Pathologist whose name I can't even pronounce was awesome. She talked to Aly at length - encouraging her to a career in the medical field - especially Pathology and Medical Examiner. She even let Aly look at one of the slides with her cells on it so she could identify both the Lymph cells and the red blood cells (who says a day at the hospital is a waste of a good homeschooling day!!!) after she braved 3 passes of the needle without a local. Yep - she didn't even flinch!!!!

Well, that was out first stop - FNA and blood tests, next it is off to the XRay dept for a full chest Xray. Again, the tech was incredible - really sweet lady and she let us see both Xrays on the computer screen afterwards - do you have any idea how incredible the human body is? Aly wants her Xray to put on the front of a shirt and the tech was so encouraging Aly to learn all she could about the Human Body before she even got near college as it will put her ahead in the knowlege dept - whether she goes into ME or Forensic Anthropology.
By this point we were both tired and emotionally drained but we had to do a TB test still which they said was a quick poke and we could leave - it was about Noon. We had now been at UNMH since 8:45am. We go to peds and they triage her and then say - we are closed until 1 - see you in an hour. UGH - I ask if she can eat anything so off we go to Subway for some sustenance. Back up to Peds an hour later. Well, we were visit by the same Dr. twice giving us the lowdown on TB tests - what to expect, look for etc. and then we waited and waited and waited and waited. FINALLY, a very bored mom goes to find what the hold up is. - I think they forgot about us.
They come in, stick her and send us on our merry way at 3:00 or so.
I can't say that the day was a waste - we got the most AWESOME science day at a real lab but I cannot even begin to tell you the emotional drain we were all under this week. I did not have time to even think about or take pics for U is for Udder. HMPH. I'll get to it when I get to it. For now, I'm catching up on life, trying to field phone calls from all my AWESOME family and friends who love my family and I - couldn't live without you all, catch up on laundry, house cleaning and yes, blogging and emails - trying to ignore what is behind Door #3 (or 4 for that matter) as I don't care for big scare monsters who lurk trying to eat your kids......(okay - DRamatic but that is how I feel) and fight off the fear, anger, frustration, disbelief, grief and the dysfunction of the brain I'm experiencing.....But as a dear friend reminded me this am - Fear is not of the LORD....I will trust in HIM and leave my precious daughter who is being so brave and incredible thru this trial - going thru being used as a human pincusion and subjected to more tests in 2 days than she's had in school in 9 years in HIS capable hands. I do have to say - the Educational aspects I think made it easier on her - being able to see what they were looking at makes things a little less scary. It's not out there in the realm of the unknown zone....but she really is brave and I've gotten tons of hugs from her - (she isn't my snuggle bug ya know). I know she is going to make it through all this insanity no matter what door is open to us. So for those of you waiting on pins and needles for U is for Udder - sorry - I'll get to it. But not right now......