And a year later...

Well, here we are a year later, almost to date. A lot can happen in a year. Babies can be conceived and born in less than a year. A kindergartner can learn how to read. A person ages a whole 365 days! Christmas. New jobs. Graduation. Life... Changes. Good and bad. Sometimes it doesn't take a whole year. Sometimes all it takes is a quick second, a word, and your whole world changes. Our world changed forever, on June 18, with one word. Tumor.

Belle had been experiencing headaches since school ended at the end of May. I thought she was having a rough time with allergies. Then, the headaches continued. Medicine didn't do the job. The headaches continued day after day, worse in the morning, worsening slightly everyday. Something wasn't right, it was time to call the pediatrician. After a quick visit with our pediatrician a blood test was ordered to test for valley fever. Belle had her blood drawn for the very first time on June 1 and she did an amazing job. She was brave, she laughed, she was charming, the nurses loved her. We went ahead with our plans for our first summer vacation, a trip to San Diego where Matt and I would be running out first half marathon and then camping on the beach for a whole week! We were all so excited. We had a great time, Belle still had headaches and would take naps in the middle of the day, which is not like her at all. One morning, she was complaining of a headache and then vomited. I thought to myself, this is a bad sign. Our pediatrician called during our trip to tell me that Belle's valley fever test had come back negative, they had also tested her blood for signs of infection, which also came back negative. He told me to bring her back in if her headaches continued. We got back home and the headaches persisted. Back to the pediatrician. This time he wanted a MRI. After Belle's appointment we tried to go to the movies, again, Belle vomited, my stomach dropped. The hospital called to schedule the MRI for Monday, June 18, almost a week after our appointment with Belle's doctor. I called the hospital the next day to see if there was an opening for an earlier time, I'm not good at waiting. Fortunately, there was an opening on Saturday morning. Saturday morning we went to Belle's MRI appointment, again, she was amazing. She stayed completely still for an entire hour, an impressive feat for an 8 year old. The MRI tech came in and gave Belle a big hug and told her how proud she was. Then she looked at me and I knew that she had seen something. I tried to get some information out of her, she gave me nothing. Now to wait, again. Bright and early Monday morning, June 18, I called to hospital to get her results, they told me that they needed a doctor to call for the results. I called our pediatrician, told him the story, and he made things happen. Three exhausting hours later my phone rang. "Serene? This is Dr. Bean. I'm afraid it's not good news. Belle has a tumor."

Name change!

I started this blog a year ago. As you can tell, I'm horrible at it. :) It was called Serene's Snippets. Life called for a name change. "Well, Shoot!" seemed appropriate. That single phrase can be used in all situations. It can be used in times of excitement and in times of extreme frustration. It's a phrase I use often. When I don't have the words to deal with what life throws at me, "Well, Shoot." seems to do the job.