Oh, that is never a good sign...

That was the thought in my head yesterday after bringing E in to the pediatrician for what I thought was a simple sore throat. (Let me just state up front, that she is 100% fine and her crazy water lovin' self as usual. In fact, playing in the sink (one of her favorite games) as I write this.)

Easy. Kid wakes up with a sore throat. Food doesn't "taste right". Won't eat her cheerios. I check. Yeah, sure...it looks a little on the medium rare side.

Okay. No big deal.
Let's cancel gymnastics camp and head on over to our good friend, the pediatrician's. They haven't seen us in over two weeks...they're probably getting worried. :)

No strep. That's good. But when checking her lymph nodes, the doc lingers. And lingers. And checks again. And then checks some others.

Um, that's not good.

Then calls in another, more senior, doctor.

Never a good sign.

(I am aware what is going on at this point and am hanging on by a very thin thread. Just ready to scream....PLEASE TELL ME IT IS NOTHING. ALL I WANT TO HEAR OUT OF YOUR MOUTH IS THAT THIS IS NOTHING. THAT IS IT! IF YOU CAN'T SAY THAT...THEN DON'T SPEAK.)

I manage to squeak out a small, "Um, what do you think is going on?" on the verge of tears.

The more senior doc says that he would get an X-ray and CAT scan...today and this week, respectively. He doesn't know what it is but is throwing some strange terms at me that I was ill equipped to understand much less retain in my panic-stricken-pleaseletmykidbeokay-frame of mind.

They set up the x-ray for RIGHT THEN.

Again, never a good sign.

Drive over to the radiologist's, stopping off for a minute in "LET'S NOT PANIC-VILLE" after a call to Mike, who lives there.

Me? Not a resident.

My mom (ever my savior) just happens to be close by and is happy to come and hang out with Alice while E gets her x-ray. (Thank you.)

X-ray looks good. Nothing bad. (I couldn't and can't even say the word of what I am assuming they were looking for.)

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU.....

Radiologist confirms. CAT scan this morning confirms it as well.

Nothing bad. The hard mass where her lymph nodes are was nothing. Just a few extra ribs. Two to be exact. Nothing to worry about. Seriously, the kid has what we (yes, I am now an expert.:) like to call "bilateral cervical ribs". I am sure that there is some sort of funny joke here that if I wasn't so thankful that Ella is healthy that I might be able to figure out or make.

Phew....