Clinic

On Monday we set out for Children's Hospital, three months has flown by and it was time for our Hem/Onc clinic appointment.  Georgia had assured me that the "inside of her body was happy" and that she didn't need to get a poke, but was brave as always when she showed the phlebotomist which arm to draw from.  Georgia told him which color Band-Aid she wanted and asked to "shake" the vials once he was done, she's a pro. 
With an hour between her blood draw and our appointment we went to the cafeteria, Georgia said, "I didn't know there was a restaurant here!"  We had a bite to eat and headed to the clinic. These days when we arrive at the clinic I see the question running through the minds of the other parents, they see a full head of hair and wonder, are they new?  It becomes clearer that we've been here a while when the receptionist remarks at how much Georgia has grown.  The questions aren't one sided, I often look at the other children and wonder where they are in treatment and what type of cancer are they battling.  The clinic is a familiar place with warm smiles and horrific memories.  On this day we saw two nurses who we haven't seen in ages, they both said they wouldn't have recognized Georgia if she hadn't been with me, remarking at how grown up she is.
It was finally our turn and we headed to the small room where vitals are taken, she's up two pounds and has grown two centimeters since our last visit.  When Dr. Pollard arrived, she opened the door and was all smiles, she said it was such a treat it was to see Georgia.  Her labs look good, one was a smidge high but that was explained by a recent immunization.  I jokingly asked if we should page her transplant doctor to let him know she'd gotten an immunization, this is a topic that we still don't see eye to eye on. 
It was decided that we would see Dr. Pollard again in October then have our first visit with the Access or Survivorship Clinic in January.  This new clinic is in the same location, just with a different doctor.  We will receive a binder outlining all of the chemotherapies that Georgia received and their potential late term effects.  It's these little reminders that the war will never be over in this journey, we will forever be looking for ways that cancer and therefor the cure has impacted her body.
I have seen our journey changing in the last several months, Georgia is older and has more questions.  She will never remember the events of the past three years that way I do but she will have her own memories. 
A couple of months ago when I was putting Georgia to bed we were chatting about the day, then out of the blue, she asked why she had to get a poke at a different place.  She was referring to the SCCA lab when we did her two year post transplant work up a few months prior.  I did my best to explain that she has doctors in different places, she asked why, the questions continued, she asked why she had to be in the hospital, I told her, because you had cancer, she then asked, "why?"  It was a question that came down like a ton of bricks and a punch in the gut all at the same time.  I'll never be able to answer why and I know the questions to come will only be harder to answer as Georgia understands more.  Life isn't easy, but then again, no one ever said it would be.  For now, I am grateful for the continued healing and growth that is happening, onward and (literally) upward is the only way to go.

Our at home growth chart - she's growing like a weed!