Pneumonia or Cancer?

A couple of weeks ago Tabitha was having a persistant cough with a fever that would come and go. I figured she just had a cold or some virus that just needed to take its course. But after a weekend of no sleep because she was coughing all night I decided it was time to take her to the doctor's office.

I love our pediatrician's office! They have an hour each morning from 7am-8am that you can walk-in without an appointment to see the doctor. This is so great to me because I only have to take the sick child with me and the rest of the kids can stay home since Juan doesn't go into the office until 8:30. So that Monday I woke her up a little bit earlier than usual and told her to get ready to go to the doctor's office. After getting dressed, she came downstairs and said to me, "I'm sure I'll be fine, as long as it is not pneumonia or cancer." In my head I was thinking..."What the heck! Why is my 9 year old worried about cancer?!" I tried not to laugh as I could tell she was being serious about it. I wanted to calm her worries so I told her that if she had cancer she would probably be feeling a lot worse than she was and if it was pneumonia there is medicine that will help her get over it. I'm still not sure what prompted the worry of cancer, but I think that she was nervous about the pneumonia because her school teacher last year was hospitalized with pneumonia and ended up retiring because she was so sick.

So at the doctor examined her and right away said that she had pneumonia. I just about fell out of my seat! I couldn't believe it! Tabitha is my only child who doesn't have asthma and she very rarely gets sick. I thought that the worst the doctor would say was that she had bronchitis. On the ride home from the doctor's office Tabitha asked me, "How do you think Papa is going to react when we tell him I have pneumonia?" I told her he would probably be surprised since she is hardly ever sick. Then she said, "Maybe we should tell him to sit down before we give him the news." I couldn't help the smirk that came across my face! Tabitha is rarely this serious about anything.

Thankfully, after two rounds of antibiotics (which leads me to believe it was viral and just had to run its course), she is now well. I guess I should also be thankful that it wasn't cancer!