Sometimes, things just go right

Anya's ENT visit went stunningly well. First of all, she handled the whole visit brilliantly. For all her meltdowns before we left the house, she was calm and composed, and only fidgeted a little when they stuck a cotton swab up her nose to poke at things -- and honestly, wouldn't you? She cried a bit when the nurse went to arrange for photos of the inside of her nose, yes. But during her last visit to this office, the nurse left the room and came back with a gigantic pair of tweezers, which she used to pull a blackened battery out of Anya's nose. I wanted to cry myself. Otherwise, she was the picture of bravery.

The nurse was awesome. Great with both kids, and handled everything with grace and humor. Made what I'd expected to be a stressful visit almost...fun.

Then there was the diagnosis, or lack thereof. No cystic fibrosis test needed, because Anya has other nose issues. Namely, a hole in her septum. (That sound you hear is my stomach churning.) Most likely from the aforementioned battery. So they took a bunch of photos of her nasal passages and told us to treat her nose with good ol' Neosporin for a month, then come back. The hope is that the tissues will heal on their own.

I'm wondering if this won't also solve some of her sinus problems. Perhaps her issue is not so much allergy as structural malformation. I certainly wasn't looking forward to allergy testing, that's for sure. Dare I hope?

The ointment they gave us during the Battery Incident burned, Anya said. But she likes Neosporin. So I am hoping that a) she continues to like it when I have to put it up her nose twice a day, and b) it does what they want it to do.

For being such an amazingly brave girl, I treated Anya to Sonic. Didn't even make her finish her sandwich before she got an Oreo Blast, either. While we were there, a sweet man paid for our lunch. I've never had that happen before; it was really touching. We ate at the picnic tables and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Anya chased birds. Kai napped until dessert, then happily sampled bites of my ice cream. 

This day could have gone very differently. But it didn't. I love it when that happens.