I have found myself unable to sit down and write for the past few days.  I took my kids in for their 4-year and 18-month checkups on Monday.  The 4-year old is still a giant and super smart.  The 18-month old is pretty average sized and doing better developmentally than I give her credit for-- not that I think she's behind.  She's actually ahead of average.  I just sometimes fall into the trap of comparing my children to one another.  I hope to learn my lesson before I scar them in their teenage years (at least for that particular reason).
    However, I did also encounter a bit of unexpected news:  a small "mass" (a.k.a. little lump) that had been noticed in her abdomen a few months ago by the nurse when I had her in for a sick appointment was still present during her exam.  In February the NP said it could easily just be a bit of a "back up" in the intestines, so to speak.  The pediatrician said Tuesday that it could be that, or a skin cyst, or basically anything.  She was curious enough (and afraid of being sued out of practice enough, I'm sure) to order a CT scan to take a look at it.  I suspected we had found where Jimmy Hoffa was buried, so I agreed to make the appointment.  
    Then I got home.  I realized all at once that I was very nervous about putting a 4-year-old through a stressful procedure, I was a bit shocked that there was something amiss the one time I go into the doctor without any irrational worries, and I forgot to ask any relevant questions:  What does this procedure involve?  What are we looking for?  What do we do if we find something?  What do we do if we find nothing?  When do I find out the results?  Will my result-bearer explain the results in detail, or will I hang up the phone only to realize that I have a whole nother set of unasked/unanswered questions?
    Well, to get to the point before my girls insist I step away from the computer:  we got the scan done.  She had a terrible time drinking the Big Gulp of ghastly immitation fruit punch (which is double secret immitation, because fruit punch is just immitation fruit flavor) that contained part of the contrast dye, but she managed enough.  She did a great job getting her first I.V., which amazed me considering she was still beyond P.O.ed about the four shots she got at her check-up on Tuesday.  Kudos to Children's Mercy Hospital on that one.  They had two nurses to work on the I.V. itself, along with a girl I keep wanting to call a Life Coach that was in charge of entertaining my daughter with a large noisy book that completely blocked her view of what was happening to her pre-numbed hand.  You could tell she could still feel it, but she did very well.  So well, in fact, that we got to skip the sedation entirely.  Since that carries its own set of risks, I was fairly glad of that.  She was a perfect statue for the actual scan, which means we didn't have to reschedule the whole thing over.  That was nice.  I don't think I could have gotten her to take another sip of that gunk in order to try again.
    I'm not sure when I get the results, but I was really more stressed about the scan itself.  Now I can breathe a bit better.  My girl is so brave.  I'm so proud every time I see her accomplish something like this; something I have to pretend doesn't scare me.  And since they didn't drug her up, I don't have to deal with a loopy kid all day!  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs)

    In unrelated news, I have finally killed the last bedraggled stem of the plant my mom and stepdad gave me the day my first daughter was born.  I'm actually surprised it made it four years!  Sorry, Mom.  You know I suffer from the Black Thumb.

CL