Appointment Adventures

Today, Julia had her 6 month follow up with Dr. Hodges, the pediatric urologist.  We were happy to be going to 'just a doctor's appointment'.  However when it came time to get out of the car...

Julia said, "It's okay you can go in, I'll just wait here."

Me... "We have to go see the doctor, Julia.  It's just a check-up.  We're going to talk and feel your belly.  Don't worry, they don't do ports here."

Julia... "Okay, but can we talk about something else? I don't want to talk about me this time." 

The appointment went well.  Dr. Hodges was happy with everything he saw on the ultrasound and with her progress so far.  The left side- where they removed her tumor and kidney- has healed very nicely.  They were impressed by how good her scar looks.  All her functioning looked healthy and normal.  He doesn't want us to rush the potty training.  She was trained a year ago, but when they found the cancer he wanted her put in diapers indefinitely.  That's where we still are today.  At times it can be a challenge because a child her age who drinks 60oz of water a day pees way more at once than diapers are designed to hold.  He wants her to have time to fully heal physically and emotionally from the cancer treatments and give her body time to bounce back from the chemotherapy.  She is still having bowel issues that would make potty training impossible at this point.  So I guess the diapers will be around for awhile longer.  We're just so thankful everything works like it should.

We left at noon and headed out to get some lunch.  We're driving down the interstate and I heard a loud pop.  I thought something in the car had fallen or something had bounced off the car.  Then I started hearing this loud noise, kind of like a helicopter.  I kept trying to figure out where it was coming from.  Then the rear of the car started shaking violently.  Looking in the rearview mirror I knew something was wrong.  I pulled off the road and sure enough the 'pop' was the sound of the back tire blowing out.  I was so thankful that I didn't loose control of the car! (We definitely have God's protection on the road after our mishap back in April when I blacked out behind the wheel on the way home from Julia's radiation.)

The tire was definitely shot.

Fortunately Daddy was about to start his lunch hour at the class his was taking for work.  So our knight in shining armor came to the rescue.  Yes, I do know how to change a tire, but it takes a lot of wrist strength to get those bolts off.  I make a much better assistant :)  And Daddy came much faster than AAA.  He got us back on four wheels again in no time.  It did kind of surprise me that no one stopped to help in the time we were waiting for him- including the two state troopers who went by.

So all is well as we start the weekend and we are optimistic that November will be a doctor and hospital-free month.  We are thankful that our adventures today were not medical related.  We'll take it.  Tires are easy to fix :)  Her next appointment is December 3rd.