Taking a break...

...from packing.

To go to Hospital City.

Again.

:::sigh::: I actually had a little flutter of panic tonight. For one moment, I couldn't picture the now-familiar route to Hospital City. Had no idea of how to get there in the morning, once I turned out of our driveway.

It was an odd, disconnected feeling.

Rather ironic, actually, considering how many trips we have made to The Hospital in the last couple of years.

This time, we are going to depart armed with x-rays and MRI films and photocopied reports from doctors. (I'm learning - never give away the originals!) The reports include words and numbers that are gibberish to me, although I have waded through them enough times to figure out that they all say the same thing: We don't know what's going on with this kid.

It frightens Twinks that none of these doctors have an answer for her pain. Her pain is increasing again - now it washes down her legs almost non-stop. The pain in her back is moving higher, and no position, or any number of cushions, makes it go away.

In the morning, we will load up the suitcase, the ice chest (hey - I'm NOT going without my Diet Coke!) and "the kitchen", our tote bag that carries our snacks and picnic supplies. I wish that we could stop near the banks of The River, at the shady little glen we found on a previous trip for an open-air luncheon... but I know that won't happen on this trip. Tomorrow, we will stop every hour, so that her joints don't stiffen from the pain. We will frequent the small-town "Quickee-Stops" and the Diamond Shamrock gas stations where the ladies room key is tied to a huge chunk of some former automobile. We will stop at Burger Kings and McDonalds and Dairy Queens (all of your fast-food royalty). We will stretch our legs, use the bathroom, maybe buy a postcard, or some other little trinket, and we will go on again. For another hour.

One hour at a time, one mile at a time, one minute at a time, we will get there. And on Tuesday morning, we will once again haunt the halls of The Hospital, hoping that Our Doctor can take all of the clues, all of the symptoms, and put them together into a diagnosis.