Our Crazy Clinic Day

Have you ever seen something or read something and wondered what it would be like to experience or see it?  Like seeing the Eiffel Tower, or Washington Monument, etc - Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes it is a bad thing. 
When my sisters and I were younger we went through a phase where we loved the author Lurlene McDaniel.  From what I remember most of the books were related to a disease and what it was like for all those who knew and loved the person with the illness.  Anyways, the Ronald McDonald House was a constant in most of the book as a place for the family to be close by to the patient. When reading these books I always wondered what the RMH was like and always wanted to see one.  Well, that 'wonderment' came true and I now know first hand all about the RMH and how amazing it truly is.  That's an example of the question above - I wondered about something and now have experienced it, and while I would rather have not had to have a child with Leukemia to have seen the RMH at least I no longer have to wonder what the RMH looks like :)  (**If you are curious google a local RMH and I am sure they would be more then happy to give you a tour of their facility and if able you can leave a $10 donation which will give one family a free night at the RMH)

Another thing that has fascinated me as a child was those Run Away Truck Ramps.  I know here in flat Wisconsin the ramps are few and far between but growing up in Northern California with steep mountains we saw them often.  I always wondered what it would be like to drive a truck into one of them.  I have never experienced this, and really hope to never have to (pretty sure this one will never happen) but it is something that I have always wondered about. 

Another 'wonderment' that I have had since I was able to drive was what would happen if your tire blew out.  You always see those tire pieces in the middle of the road and I wondered what happened at the point the tire blew - did the car swerve all over the road?  Did the brakes work properly?  etc.  Well, lucky me got to experience this first hand yesterday on our way to Channing's clinic appointment.  We were about 20 minutes from the clinic (so a little over 45 minutes from home) when the car started shaking and I wondered if it was the road or the car.  I HATE pulling over on the shoulder of the road (random quirky fear of mine, I have a lot) because I am afraid another car will hit us while we are stopped (I had a scary dream of this happening a couple years ago).  So, I switched lanes to see if it was just the road, it wasn't.  Right after I realized I was going to have to pull over on the shoulder my tire blew.  Thankfully, the car did exactly what I wanted it to and I pulled over onto the dreaded shoulder with no problems.  I got out to check and see exactly what happened and was greeted with this:

Thinking it probably wasn't a great idea for me 8 months pregnant to change a tire (I do know how!)especially since no baby is allowed come till his due date, August 15th, and I do not want to do anything to cause me to go into labor early.  So, I called Kindt and asked what his thoughts were.  I knew I could someone in Madison, and I knew I could call someone from Janesville (20 minutes south).  Kindt thought it would be best for him to leave work and come rescue me so that we could also get the car taken care of right then and there and not have to worry about how to do it later.  I agreed.  I called Channings Doctor and told them the situation and asked if we could delay our appointment for 2 hrs.  They were able to accommodate us and we began our 45 minute wait buckled into our seats in the van watching a movie. 

Kindt arrived about 45 minutes later and quickly put the spare on.

My hero :)

Then we got to drive down the freeway at 45 miles an hour with our hazards on... we weren't making many friends on the freeway.  It took about 30 minutes to get to the repair shop in Madison, when it would normally take 15.  Kindt and Jakob waited at the tire center while I took Channing to his appointment.  Amazingly, we were right on time for the appointment!

Channing's appointment went really well, and was actually one of the quickest appointments we have ever had in clinic.  They didn't have to do his blood counts and wait for the results (which can take up to 2 hrs) because he had just had his counts the day before (he was really lethargic so we took him into the local pediatrician to do a quick check up).  So, we just had to wait for the oncologist to look Chan over, then access his port, then do the 5 minute IV push.

The doctors knew that Channings birthday was the next day (today!!) so they gave him an extra special treasure box toy.

Gotta love his 'smile', its beginning to be very similar to Jakobs wide eyed crazy faced 'smile' :)

Jakob and Kindt met us at the clinic and finished out the appointment with us.  So, other then the random blown out tire it was a pretty uneventful good day :) 

Do any of you have any things that you have always wondered about and maybe hoped that you would experience and did, or maybe hoped you would never experience but it happened?