Nora's Intense Week

So two Mondays ago Nora grumpily did not want to get dressed to leave the house. Who can blame her, right? As a typical 3.5 year old, she kicked and yelled and thrashed while Tim patiently [I hope] waited for her to get it out. 

Almost immediately, girlfriend started limping. Great. We let it go for a bit because we assumed she strained it a big while being difficult. 

We approach Friday to leave for a family weekend in Indiana [an entirely different post to come] and she is still limping. There was no swelling. She mentions her leg hurting here and there. On her thigh and hip. 

We go on our family trip [yada yada yada] and she’s still limping. We hadn’t done anything until this point because a lot of times you all know you head to the pediatrician and they tell you to keep an eye on things and shove medicine down their throat : P

So Monday afternoon Tim took Nora to the pediatrician and they recommended an X-ray. GAH! So at 6:11pm I left the house with Nora to head to Mason [about 15 minutes North] to a Children’s Hospital branch up there. It was thankfully very empty. 

Nora was nervous and asking questions. “Am I getting an x-ray?” I tried to just tell her she was getting a picture taken because for some reason the idea of an x-ray made her nervous. 

She was very nervous, but not scared, in the x-ray room. Lucky for me, I’ve done it 3X with Hannah [!] so I knew what we were doing. “Look Mommy gets to wear a big vest!” “Ooo what a huge camera!” I basically tried to make it FUN. 

She did awesome and got a sticker and looked at her x-rays right away. The x-ray showed nothing to the naked eye. We were home by 7:15pm - whew!

The next day the pediatrician called me; Nora had fluid on her hip joint. It could be a handful of things, so they wanted to get labs [aka bloodwork] to see if there was inflammation. Worst case; if there was a lot of inflammation, it could mean reactive arthritis. * cue my stomach dropping * I can handle one child with therapies, please not two.

I took Nora the next day to head to yet another branch of Cincy Children’s at Eastgate - the same place Hannah and I frequent for lab work and her audio test. Fun times! Wheeee! 

I was dreading bloodwork with Nora. It’s one thing when a 9-month old doesn’t know what’s going on. My clever 3.5 year old knows what’s happening. Nora asked if she was getting a shot.... I didn’t want to lie to her. I said “Kind of.” I held her in my lap and tried my best to distract her with videos on my phone. Nora watched the medic get all her tools prepped... She told Nora, “Don’t look!” Really woman?! 

Nora watched the entire thing; needle in, draw, etc. She cried hard. She cried a cry I haven’t heard from her before: a scared cry. It shattered me. I still say it was successful because she sat STILL and the blood was collected. 

I let her watch videos on the drive home, I gave her marshmallows as part of her dinner, I let her watch TV after dinner. I think by that point she’d stopped being sad and angry at me. 

I’m pretty certain she’s permanently scarred for life from that blood draw. 

Wednesday I waited for the next phone call - what the labs would show; and thank you, Big Baby Jesus, her bloodwork was clear. My gut told me her hip was just strained... Very thankful this week.