Tough

This is tough.  But you are tougher than you know.  Dutifully, you carry your day's load of books - mostly Franklin and Berenstain Bears.  You whisper that you will tell the nurse which story is your favourite - even as you are shy to even think about speaking to a nurse.  You ask if it's still snowing outside and wonder wehether we will get the room beside the Christmas tree.  You don't want to be here any more than I do, yet you excitedly check around the corner from triage to see what show is on in the waiting room.  Toopy & Binoo get your cheer of approval.  You blast right through the intake process of thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, and the finger clip with the red glow.  As a nurse prints your bracelet you call out to her that you got a bracelet at Tinkertown too.  With every new doctor or nurse that enters the room, you avert your eyes, wisely not trusting these people with sharp objects.  But slowly, each of them gets you to open up a little bit more, some of them even earning a sly smile or goofy grin.  A few hours later we pack up to go, your body filled with the medicine it needs to fight this bugger, your bag filled with as many stickers as you had needle-pricks, your mind filled with thoughts of the Franklin book that the last doctor suggested, and your heart filled with the pride and confidence that only come by overcoming.  You are tougher than you know.