Life will sometimes throw you a curve ball

We seem to get so settled into the life, that we forget that sometimes, life will throw us a curve ball. About six months ago, I noticed that Nathan had a swollen lymph node in his neck. It was around the time of our big vacation at the end of June, so I didn't really think anything of it. We went on our vacation for about 2-1/2 weeks, came home and got back into life. It had been put into the back of my mind by then. Then, school started for the kids and then myself and life seemed to get even crazier.

By September, I hadn't really thought about it. Then, he had his yearly checkup. The doctor noticed it, but said to just keep an eye on it for a couple of months and it should reduce in size, that more than likely it was just swollen because he had had a cold or something. So I kept watching it. It didn't get any bigger, but it didn't go away. Then came time for Meagan's checkup, but I didn't have him w/me at her appointment, so I decided I would just have him check him at the next checkup for Derek, which would be at the end of November. I figured two months was plenty of time for it to go down. Well, November came and went, and so did December. (Derek's yearly checkup didn't happen until February).

In January, Nathan had woken up w/double pink eye. So, I took him into the doctor so I could get more medicine (I usually keep the medicine on hand, but had run out). The doctor decided to check his lymph node to see how it was doing. It was still the same and to top it all off, he now has multiple swollen lymph nodes. He said he doesn't think that they are any cause for worry, but that he would like to send him to a specialist (ear, nose and throat doctor) just to make sure. The problem in this area, is finding an ENT doctor that actually deals w/throats, not just ears. So he said to give him about a week and he would get me a referral. During that week, he was starting his own practice, moving out of the office he was in. Well, the referral didn't happen that week. Instead, the first of two blizzards happened. It was on Friday of the week of the blizzard that we had gone in for Derek and Jessica's checkups. Because of the blizzard and not being able to work, he still didn't have the referral. So, he said to call on the following Wednesday if I hadn't heard from him and he should have it by then. So, on Thursday (the next blizzard had happened by now and they weren't open on Wednesday), I called the office and they still didn't have the referral. I talked to the office manager who said to give her a few days and she would have it.

By this time, I was almost in tears. I told her to please get back to me soon, as it had been two weeks since we had first been told we would get a referral. She quickly got on it and by 10 am the next day, not only did we have a phone number of a doctor to see, but they had set up the appointment for us, which is tomorrow, the 21st. So finally, after weeks of waiting, we finally get to find out what is going on with our little boy. From all that I have read up on it, it could be anywhere from an infection and maybe needing his tonsils out to as severe as leukemia, though I'm almost positive it is the former. The doctor has made several remarks about how big his tonsils are, so hopefully, we will go in tomorrow and find out that all that needs to be done is for him to have his tonsils out, as he really doesn't seem to have any other symptoms.

Of course, after a little over a week of worry and prayer and receiving blessings, I'm finally able to come to terms that even though it would be easy to sit and worry that something could be wrong w/my little boy (and I now have a peace about me that things are not so severe), I know that whatever curve ball life throws at us, there is always a way to manage it. I know that no matter what the outcome of tomorrow's visit, my Savior is there to help us through it.