Appointments

We did make it home with Rachael at about 4:30pm Sunday after about six hours or so on the road. We had a great visit, the ABT produced a great show Saturday and it didn't take long to load her stuff in the car. The only downside to the weekend was a significantly restless night Friday night, cause unknown. Otherwise, it was good to be out and away, even for those few days.

This week has been the week of appointments: my Georgetown appointment Monday, Rachael's orthodontist appointment Tuesday, my appointment with radiation oncology Wednesday (follow-up). And there may be a few other's I've forgotten. Regardless, we'll have all this behind us as we join the Alter's, Pruett's and William's at Nag's Head for a week. Well, at least the appointments, but not the aftermath, will be done.

I only want to touch on the Georgetown visit briefly. They were surprised that we were back to visit them. After recapping the last six months for them, their surprise deepened when they learned that chemo was stopped completely. They were stymied to know the decision to send us back to Georgetown to revisit the opportunities for clinical trial was made on a dirth of evidence. It was all very confusing and overwhelming, and I did not really want to be there in the first place. Hopefully an August 3rd appointment with Dr Felice will straighten out those conditions.

The visit with Dr Altemus went good, although a new, recently experienced pain (I thought it manifested in the femur near the top) was discussed. A simple demonstration of crossing my legs and she was convinced that the pain was likely in the joint. After the visit yesterday, I was able to get a regular x-ray of my pelvis and the right hip. The results of that film says the hip is clean, so now we go to an MRI to see if anything is there. The pain has been gone all day today.

Sandwiched between those two appointments was Rachael's ortho appointment. Now after several years, all our children are brace-free. And as with both boys, Rachael has a beautiful smile, even before the braces came off. Years of fighting about the rubber bands, ortho visits for repairs or adjustments, things they were not supposed to eat, and cleanings are over. They have, each one persevered although at the time they could not imagine either the day without braces nor the resulting beauty of the work.

We don't have physical braces, but woven throughout our life are those days and circumstances God uses to teach, correct, and adjust. Without the painful correcting of our lives with his will, we would never see the beauty that we are meant for. We cannot imagine the result God has planned, and attempts to define in the abstract a possible outcome pales when the reality of a life spent in faith in the fullness of his light. May the anticipation of the beauty we all will become ease the burden of the braces he uses to prepare us for that beauty.