Today was a good day

I think we have our daughter back. The child whose world was circumscribed by pain, whose days and nights were measured in minutes since the last dose of Tylenol or minutes until the next dose of Motrin, has given way to the old Samantha. The bright, quick, often charming, frequently stubborn, sometimes infuriating, always in motion Samantha. Sure, she's a scary smart rather temperamental five year old, but she's our scary smart rather temperamental five year old again, and she's turned out to be so resilient that the months of pain and sleeplessness have barely left a mark on her.

Today we went biking together with the trail-a-bike. Only after we were on the bike path did I realize that this is the first time we've gone biking together all summer. Last year we were out at the park or the playground or the reservoir or the bike path, or sometimes at multiples of these, every nice weekend day of the summer. This year we've had to be so hesitant, so tentative about doing things with Samantha because of her knee and the constant risk that her medication would wear off at an inopportune time. Having found a way to manage her pain, while not as good as a diagnosis and "cure", is still like magic for us.

I'd thought that we'd do the short trip down the bike path to Lexington Center and back, maybe 20 minutes or so each way. But Samantha fairly insisted that we bike all the way to the end, out in Bedford, and back again. So we did. We saw chipmunks and squirrels, stopped to see the horses that pasture up against the bike path in Lexington, waved to the cars on 128 as we crossed the bicycle bridge overthe highway, and took a water break out in Bedford at the old unused railway car that marks the end of the path.

Then we turned around and rode home to meet Amy and Joshua in Arlington Center for dinner. It's a total distance of about 17 miles and takes about 90 minutes with the trail-a-bike. So Sam biked for 90 straight minutes today, and she was great the whole time. She pedaled almost all the way without complaint, except that her fingers were cold where they extend outside her cycling gloves.

Later in the month we're probably going to do a family bike-a-thon / cycling race. Sam has her heart set on winning. I'll have to help her understand that just finishing the course together will be a victory for us, and she shouldn't expect to come in first. But finish we will: the short course is just six and a half miles or so, and for Samantha that ain't nothin'.

Today was a good day. We have Samantha back. Thank you, Dr. LeBel.