My apologies! :(

Okay...so I realize it has been 12 days since my last post...unacceptable. Im sorry and I hope you are ready for this one because its going to be a LONG one...seeing as how we have gone to the University of Chicago four times now, and you haven't heard about any of them. :( So go grab some snacks (or lots of snacks if it were me) and a drink because here it goes...

Mom's 1st trip to the Univ:
--This is the only trip that I have not made. My mom went with Nick (Nichole's dad) for this one. She met with a couple doctors and I believe they went over what things would be like and took some blood. I apologize for not knowing alot about this trip, but I am pretty sure that not much happened on this one.

My mom and I's 1st trip to the Univ:
--WOW! That is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this trip. Katie (one of my friends and my mom's other "daughter") came on this trip with us. Katie came over to my house around 5 I believe because we wanted to leave the house by 530. EARLY MORNING! :( Car was packed with everything we needed and the GPS was good to go on getting us there. :) So 530 rolled around and we were on the road. On this day we left early to spend some time in Chicago before her appointment and due to the weather...we had just had a snowstorm both in Peoria and Chicago. The roads were not terrible, but they were not good by ANY means. Mom was in the back seat having a heart attack the whole time over my driving. Everytime I would pass someone who was driving 30 when the speed limit is 55, she would FREAK OUT! :) I wouldn't do anything to hurt her...I just didn't want to take 6 hours to get to Chicago. Well we got to Joliet and decided it was time to stop for breakfast (even though I had already made a stop at McDonalds for round one...haha). For this trip we decided to stop at Cracker Barrel...what a lovely experience we had here. We ate breakfast and then we went outside and I decided to sit myself down in a CHILD size rocking chair. It looked sooo cute. Or so i thought at the time. Just watch for yourself and see what happened. :(

**For now I am experiencing difficulty on getting the video to load here, so you can go to this website if you want to see it**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4xmgOOhaC4


HA HA HA! NOT! Im sure plenty of you are getting a good laugh right now, but I could NOT believe that I got stuck in the chair and she didnt! HUGE shot to my ego! Oh well. Gotta love her. :) Well after breakfast we didnt have much further to go but the weather and car accidents everywhere did slow us down somewhat. On this trip we decided to go up and spend some time in Chicago so we went to the Museum of Science and Industry and then downtown to get some Garretts popcorn. :) What a good time driving in downtown Chicago during the lunch hour. After all of our fun we headed to the University of Chicago for our 1 pm appt.

This is where I will give you an idea of what we go through each time.) When we arrived at the Univ, we pulled up for valet parking right in front of the building...left the car and headed up to the 6th floor. We check her in and then head to some other area for bloodwork. After we got done with bloodwork this day, we headed back across to see the doctor. We waited for the doctor for a good while. Finally, we got finished there and headed downstairs so she could drink her "juice" (the CT scan drink) and have her scan done. After a couple hours, mom finally came out and we were free to go. By this point it was getting late and mom wasnt feeling too good. We stopped at Portillo's in Joliet for dinner. Mom wasnt going to eat anything since she wasnt feeling well, but decided to eat some of my food. Turned out to be quite the mistake. haha. We left and stopped to get gas and apparently while I was out pumping the gas, she PASSED SOME GAS in the car. All of a sudden i see Katie with her head out the window gagging. The lovely CT "juice"! :( My car now smelled SOOOOO bad that we ran back into the gas station and grabbed 2 cans of air freshener and sprayed mom and my car down when we got back in. However there was still a lack of oxygen in the car so we were driving with the windows down when it was like 15 degrees out. For the rest of the trip home Katie was ready with her hands on the triggers! haha
Lets just say we made it home but it was NOT a pleasant ride. :)

TRIP ONE TO THE UNIV COMPLETE!

Mom and I's 2nd trip to the Univ:
--Same as last time...get up at the crack of dawn, stop for breakfast along the way, get there and head upstairs. This time we were going for mom's first treatment, so they gave us a tour of the area where she would be getting her treatments. From now on whenever we come and its a treatment day,we will go upstairs and check in, head across the hall to get her vitals and have blood taken, and then go back out and wait for them to call her name for the shot. After we got the shot the first 2 times, we had to wait to see if there was going to be a reaction. It seems there was some sort of reaction but im not sure what it was from...take a look.





Pretty sure the shot did a little somethin to her face?!?! OOOOPS! Actually this is the only reaction she had (which is normal)...

This picture was taken the day after the shot was given. If you look closely the center area that is a darker red is where they actually inject the shot. It is risen above her skin because the fluid they inject is really thick. The area usually gets to be about as big as your hand spread out and gives off alot of heat and causes her pain whenever anything touches or rubs against it. Other than the pain she feels when they take her blood, give her the shot and wiggle the needle, and the pain afterwards if anything touches or rubs against her leg...shes pretty good.

This trip almost got us into some trouble. haha. We were back waiting for them to give her the shot and started taking pictures and laughing sooooo hard that everyone was staring at us...patients and nurses. I think they were all confused as to how we could be having fun and laughing while we are in a room full of dying people...one being her. Pretty sure they thought about kicking us out. haha. Just kidding. Our nurse loved us and was glad to see us enjoying ourselves at such a rough time.

So this trip to the Univ was over and we were headed back home to Peoria.

Mom and I's 3rd trip to the Univ:
--By this time we have started to get the hang of things...get up at the crack of dawn, head to Chicago, stop on the way for breakfast, get a treatment, and go home. However, this time it was Nichole's birthday and it was also the Tuesday after the SuperBowl that Denny's promised everyone in America a GrandSlam to from 6 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. Well Nichole was coming with us this day and Katie was meeting us at Denny's for our 6AM breakfast before we hit the road. Unfortunately when we arrived at Denny's BEFORE 6AM, the line was already wayyy out the door and we knew we didnt have time for that...nor did we want to wait outside where it was below freezing! So we drove down the parking lot and enjoyed our breakfast with several other Denny's "rejects". :) Then we headed to Chicago and did the normal treatment. Afterwards, we decided to go to a mall and shop for a while since it was Nichole's birthday. We walked out with nothing from the biggest mall in Illinois. :( Oh well. Time to head home as all of us were drained and exhausted.

FINALLY...our 4th and most recent trip to the Univ:
--This was a trip which I thought had the potential to go pretty quick and get us home at a decent hour rather than like 9 or 10. I was wrong. :) We waited FOREVER this time to get her bloodwork and shot, but luckily we didnt have to wait afterwards. When we left, we stopped to get Garretts popcorn for me and then we got on the road. However, at the time it happened to be rush hour and we were in a stand still and getting nowhere! It was about 5 so we just decided to stop and eat now...in Bolingbrook. We pull into Bolingbrook and I hear mom say "Thats a pretty cool store." I am thinking it really IS going to be something kinda cool. NO! def not! IT WAS A GROCERY STORE! Go figure! Gotta love her obsessions and loves in life. haha. Anyways...we eat and then afterwards decide to make a QUICK stop at IKEA. This quick stop turned into an hour or hour and a half. HAHA. OOOPS! But by this time, it was wayyy past moms bedtime and she was ready to sleep so time to go home. This left me driving home through the light snow while she snores away right next to me! :)

Well I apologize that this was sooooo long but now you are up to date with our trips to Chicago. Heres what March is going to look like...

March 3rd: Treatment
March 10th: CT scan
March 17th: Treatment and doctors appointment with 2 diff doctors
March 24th: ONLY OFF WEEK IN MARCH :(
March 31st: Treatment

So, yes...as you can see...we have a full load in March. Then the first week in April we have an off week and I am going to Gulf Shores, AL with my grandma, and we are dropping Nichole and Mom off in Jasper, AL to visit with Judy. :) We have to have something to look forward to! :)

CONGRATULATIONS! If you made it to this point...you ACTUALLY do care...that or you are bored OUT OF YOUR MIND! :)