It's quite a dance, negotiating my way between our insurance company, the larger network of providers that they're part of, our family doctor, the endocrinologist, and now, the neurologist. I feel like Alice, always running but never getting anywhere. And sometimes I get stuck in endless loops : today, for instance, the insurance company gave me a number to call, which referred me to a second number, which in turn referred me to the original number. Eventually, (no thanks to the endo's office, who gave me the name of a ped. neuro who no longer practices in this city) I managed to find a pediatric neurologist who was taking new patients, but in order to schedule an appointment with him I had to have signed release forms at the endo's office, so that he could see Em's records. So, I had to drive all the way down-town to sign the form - what a pain! You'd think the endo. would have told me I needed to do this when I was there on Friday ... Anyway, the person who dealt with the release forms swore she'd fax them to the neuro today, so, with any luck, I'll be able to set up an appointment with the neuro tomorrow. This all took me till around 10.30 this morning to sort out ... by the time I was done I had a vicious tension headache. I can feel my shoulders scrinching up towards my ears; I keep trying to relax them but it only helps for a moment - next thing I know, my jaw is clenched again and my shoulders are aching. The thing is, the more I read, and the more I hear from people on the growth-disorder list I'm on, the more I realise that the findings on Em's MRI actually could be really serious. I cannot believe that the endo. didn't have us investigate this as soon as possible, and I'm in the process of writing a letter of complaint.

After I'd organised the medical release forms, Sophs and I went to the library, (since we were down there anyway) and I took out Alexander McCall Smith's latest book. Can't wait to read it, those books are always so soothing. And I took out a video for us to watch tonight - it's date night, but we're both too tired to go out, so we'll stay in and watch the movie version of one of P.D. James's books.

After the library, we went to the pretty playground on Lake Eola, where we bumped into a friend and her kids. Something I enjoy about life these days : I now know enough people in this place that I often run into friends when I'm out and about. I enjoy that. It was an odd feeling when we first got here - knowing that we definitely weren't going to run into any friends because we didn't yet have any!

Got a lemonade from Panera after we'd finished playing ... their lemonade is so good, fresh-squeezed tasting, and really tart and cold. Felt a bit bad the other day when Sophie exposed one of the holes in her education the other day by referring to some-or-other classical music playing on the radio as "Panera music". (They always have Vivaldi-type music playing in the background there).

In the car on the way home, Sophie read aloud to me from one of the American Girl books. The story ties in very well with the Little House books (we're reading On the Banks of Plum Creek at the moment.) She'd finished the whole thing within forty minutes or so. It's funny, I absolutely hated both reading aloud, and being read aloud to, when I was her age, yet all three kids still love being read aloud to, and Ems and Sophie love to read aloud to me.