Followup tomorrow and the blessing of goals

It is hard to keep up with blogging about the RND, when in essence I know this is just a journaling experience for me.  Perhaps one day someone will find it useful.  I hope so.  In the meantime, it is a good means for me to see the progression, which unfortunately at times feels more like a two steps forward and three steps back journey.

However, now things are doing relatively well. We have Zoralei's six week followup tomorrow with the RND ortho doctor. Zoralei's a bit nervous because exercise is not her major priority much of the time. Right now she is planning a church talent show and that sucks up a lot of her spare time.  Mostly, I think she is embarrassed to report she has not done all that she feels she could have. 

Still, she definitely is not overly dramatic or focused on it as she was before her hospitalization. That has been the biggest change we see. She is establishing goals for herself and telling herself she is able to do something, rather than trying to favor her arm.  I know it still hurts as she tells me it does, but it has not become the crutch in her life.  As a matter of fact, Zoralei learned that having goals and something specific to work towards, gave her life purpose beyond the pain.  She is doing a lot of research about becoming an occupational therapist when she grows up and is looking into what she needs in high school to succeed there.  Honestly, the goal started with winning Driver's Ed and has progressed to planning for her future and she is so much happier. 

We have had another medical setback in our family again. This time a mammogram identified a lump for mom.  The first day Zoralei learned about the lump, she started crying and getting upset whenever her siblings accidentally bumped her.  Immediately, she was telling them they were hurting her.  The next day, she decided to not worry about the lump and when her brother bumped her, she simply asked him to be careful.  It was a completely different response. It is so obvious how stress really does manipulate her focus onto the RND.  Still, any child would naturally be worried, especially when obviously her parents' are.  I was impressed that she just needed a night to process it.  She's been quite patient since.

Zoralei started Driver's Ed tonight. I worry about if she has a massive pain episode, especially like she experienced two weeks ago on her menstrual cycle, that it might render her unsafe at that moment in driving.  Generally speaking, RND doesn't seem like a factor to consider being behind the wheel because when coping well, it does not seem to be an issue, but the spikes on her menstrual cycle were sudden and intense, and perhaps worthy of consideration. It is the combination of RND and possible returning endometriosis that makes it even scarier than when our first teenager drove.  Zoralei says the driving doesn't aggravate her arm, so she is not worried about it.