More Scans

We’re at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Ian’s back getting his next follow-up series of MRI scans – brain and full spine, and I’m here chasing a baby around the waiting area, while trying to convince a couple more girls to do some more of the phonics & math sheets we brought with, while attempting to blog from my phone.

I keep getting some sort of error… more later…

Okay, we’re back home.

This was one of those days. One of the ones that start early and go long.

It was over-scheduled. We had already scheduled today’s MRI series last week before we added a new speech therapy evaluation (1 hr appt) and physical therapy and occupational therapy sessions. They are recommending at least 3 times per week, and we knew he was going to be admitted this week for a round of chemo, so we knew he wouldn’t be able to get in much therapy this week, so we didn’t want to miss it on Monday. I looked at my planner, inhaled one of those slow deep breaths, said to myself “I can do this… right?” and started praying “Oh, Lord, please help me to do this. I need to be able to do this. Ian needs me to be able to do this. I need to be able to do all of this for Ian”, and I made the appointments.

I knew it would mean essentially being on-the-go, with a car* full of kids, pretty much all the live-long-day. I knew it would be long, and stressful, and I might end up with a nasty migraine headache (I’ve been known to do that a time or two or a hundred after a long and stressful day, but I did it, because, well, it’s just what you do, as a mother, isn’t it? Rise to the challenge? Or at least try, right? By the grace of God…

Out the door by 8 am, with half of my brood (I almost always bring several children as it would probably overwhelm our supply of cheerfully willing babysitters to have 6 or 7 boisterous extra children for extended periods of time), 45 minute drive to therapy appointments, piling back into car* and head to Minneapolis, grabbing a quick lunch along the way, finding parking at Children’s Hospital, walking across a skyway, down an elevator, down a couple hallways, checking in, praying quiet prayers for Ian, waiting a very long time, more walking, piling back in car* just before 5 (great, rush hour, which wasn’t so bad due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday…), driving over an hour northward, piling out of the car*, in the dark, into the house, ready to go to bed but deciding that it would be worth it to feed everyone first…

That was pretty much today.

Tomorrow, we’ll head back down to Minneapolis, to Children’s, for Ian’s lumbar puncture (looking for cancer cells in his cerebral-spinal fluid), followed by an appointment with his oncologist to discuss the scans as well as LP results (which come in pretty quickly).

Praying everything is clear!

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5. Overwhelming Support