Sophie's World

9:29 PM Well, it's been a while since we've posted. Not much to report, really. I'm amazed when I look back at those days when we posted twice (or more) per day and how important it was that we do that. We're blessed now to have so little news!

This evening we went to a birthday party for a friend here in the area. The birthday boy turned four and his sister is Sophie's age while his older brother is Lizzy's age. It's nice to have friends that are at the same age levels. Of course, we had two other invitations for things to do tonight! Things are pretty hectic for us right now. It's just a busy month. I've got three out-of-town trips this month and Susan has two. It'll be nice to get through all this and settle in for November and December.

Sophie goes on Monday for her Oncology follow-up. We're getting to the point where this is really not part of our routine anymore! And to think we had weekly visits there for a while! All things considered, I'm thankful for the every-other-month visit and am looking forward to the once per year visits!

Thanks for checking in.

Posted by Randall at 10:29 PM | Permalink

9:20 AM (central time): Sophie's checkup went pretty well yesterday. I never did get the blood test results, but I would assume they would have called immediately if anything had been wrong. I totally forgot Sophie's numbing cream and only realized it when we were nearly there. We had gone to Lizzy's orthodontist/dentist first to check on her hardware, so I asked them if they had anything. But they don't use topical anesthetics any more. So we had to go by the hospital to get cream. Sophie was not into the possibility of doing it without cream. She's brave, but not that brave.

Unfortunately, because I was approaching the hospital from a different direction than normal, I ended up at a satellite of the hospital several blocks away. Saw a parking lot with a skybridge, but also saw street parking, so I went in with the girls on the ground floor and didn't recognize a thing. Eventually asked for help and realized we were in the wrong hospital. Ugh. So, after we got the cream (and we were lucky they were open during the lunch hour--another kid had gotten sick, so they were working through), we grabbed a really quick lunch and went back. She did great for the blood draw. We also forgot her blankie, but she did okay without that. We were impressed that someone had anonymously donated flat panel TVs for the waiting area and all the exam rooms. What a nice thing to do for the kids who have to come there!

Sophie's next appointment is in early December. It's nice to be going so infrequently that we're out of our routine (but not nice to have to scramble for numbing cream). Thanks so much for keeping up with us!

Posted by Susan at 10:23 AM | Permalink

11:41 AM (Central time): Looks like it might be time for a new update. Our page was blank! All goes well with us. Randall and I have been traveling more than we like, but I think that will calm down soon. I got in from a trip last night, and Randall left the same morning. Our cars briefly co-existed in the airport parking lot, even if we personally didn't get to share the same space.

The girls are doing well and are excited about Halloween. We finally got our decorations out last weekend, and we have costumes ready to go. Elisabeth is going to be a witch (her own idea, and she came up with all the props so that all we had to buy was a hat). Sophie will be Lizzy's black cat. We got her a headband with ears and a tail to attach to black clothes. I hope it won't be too cold outside. It always seems to be especially chilly on Halloween night.

I have been having some back pain, and am starting to learn some possible causes. They have discovered through an x-ray that I have scoliosis (an odd thing to have diagnosed for the first time at my advanced age), and there is some associated narrowing and degeneration that is likely causing the pain. I will see a physical therapist next week, and will visit with a neoruologist whenever they can find me an opening. Meanwhile, I have never had a baseline mammogram, so I will have one next week, and I'm also having a follow-up CT scan to check on some spots on my lung and liver that showed up in a scan from last year (when they hadn't yet figured out that my chest pain was not a heart attack or an embolism but turned out to be pleurisy). So I will be spending a lot of time in medical appointments next week.

Posted by Susan at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)