Thanksgiving, 2012

Well, I think it's unlikely that we'll be forgetting this Thanksgiving any time soon . . . .

Let me start at the beginning. Last Friday was Natalie's Thanksgiving Program at school. It was, as you'd imagine (and as I tell you, as an unbiased observer of such things), totally adorable. The picture quality isn't the best here, but this should give a sense of both the cute and the chaos that went into the whole thing.

Pre-performance seat hijinks:

(For those lacking vision, that's a handprint turkey on her headband. Duh.)

The show:

 Post-performance victuals:

So, you'll notice in the pictures above, Natalie has both a plate and a napkin in front of her. She actually started with an oatmeal cookie on a napkin (the picture on the right, but it looked better on the left, so that's where it is, narrative flow be dammed). She ate her cookie with no problem, and then very sweetly turned to me, took a sidelong glance at the pumpkin cheesecake remaining on my plate and said, "Mommy, let's switch plates now." Well played, kitten, well played.

In sum, adorable is hard work:

That night, Natalie started complaining that her leg was hurting because one of her classmates had kicked her. I had actually witnessed the kick in question, and while it had drawn a rebuke from the teacher, it hadn't actually drawn a response from Natalie in the moment. So, the injury didn't seem major to me. The pain came and went all weekend long, seeming to appear when she was being asked to clean up, wash hands, etc. But not really interfering with gymnastics class or trips to the park. We gave her teachers a heads-up on Monday, and they suggested that maybe it could be growing pains. We still weren't sure, and she seemed to have a pretty good day at school on Monday.

Except. Except. On Tuesday, she was worse. Not, like, a little worse, but MUCH worse. She wouldn't walk or put any weight on the leg. Mike had planned to stay home with her, anyway, since her school was closed. So he made an appointment with the pediatrician for that afternoon. When you call up and say your kid can't walk, that, um, actually generates a fairly swift response. The doctor ordered both bloodwork and xrays, both of which were normal. So, on Wednesday, Mike and Natalie went to the children's hospital for an ultrasound. Which was also normal. We were totally stumped. The kid was clearly getting worse, but everything seemed normal. Wednesday afternoon, I noticed a rash on her leg, and we called the pediatrician back. At that point, I didn't know if the rash was related, but, well, since we didn't have a diagnosis, I figured it wasn't too pesty to call again. The doctor wanted to see us.

We were there for quite some time, the night before Thanksgiving. And everyone was so kind, so pleasant, and so not-rushy. And we left with diagnosis: shingles. I know, right? Kids can get it. And they do, apparently.

And, oooh boy, compared to the things this could have been - the things that ran through my mind and the things none of the medical professionals say to you, but you suspect they are looking for - shingles is a relief. In that, you know, people recover.

Natalie is still in pain and not really walking, but we're having more moments where she's herself, so that's good.

It's not the low-key, stress-free Thanksgiving we'd planned. But sometimes the Thanksgiving you get is the one for which you're really, truly thankful.