Days 77 - 79

Kennedy had clinic on Thursday and Gene and K were in and out in under 2 hours, which is record time.  Thursday’s visit was only a blood draw and doc visit in preparation for next week’s admit.  All good for now despite her cold – ANC was 2800.

Saturday night we tried to go on a date.  We didn’t realize how bad Kennedy regressed until we tried to leave.  Grandpa was watching K and Gene had a reservation for 7.  K was wrapped around my leg and refused to let go.  This reminded me of when she or Maddox were younger and had separation anxiety.  We had to leave her crying.  When we called to check on her 15 minutes later, all was fine.  She was scheduled to take her meds at 8.  We prepared them for grandpa, crushed her pill and mixed it with chocolate syrup like we do EVERY night.  Kennedy refused to take it.  We had to come home and cut our date very short to make sure she took it (reservation was at 7, we were back home before 8:30).  The minute I walked in the door, she walked over and took the medicine like nothing was wrong.  She refused to take the meds so we’d come home – smart cookie.  At that point, I knew if we stayed at home we’d be setting ourselves up for trouble in the future so we turned back around and went out for a few hours.  The rest of the night was seemless.

Since Kennedy started treatment at Loyola, we’ve been faced with the question of “why not Children’s Memorial?”  more times than we can count.  Although we have one of the top hemoc docs in the nation (there are 8 in Illinois), there are also 3 of the top docs at Children’s so we scheduled a consult just to see if we were in the right place.  There is now no doubt, we are.  Granted, we never even met the doctor because we left too soon but my gut was screaming to leave, so we did.

To start, the hospital is far for a suburbanite and the new one will be even further.  Add the Chicago city traffic, having the navigation instruct me to go the wrong place and the parking drama, and it didn’t start off well.  There was no parking.  Gene met me at the entrance to the parking garage and jumped in while I parked.  We drove to the top of the packed garage and were instructed to go the 7^th level for valet at no additional cost.  Since we were running behind, Gene dropped K and I at the elevator and continued to park.  Since we have keyless start, it wasn’t until he reached the top of the deck and we had made it to the 4^th floor that he realized I still had the keys in my pocket.  Thankfully the car was drivable to get out of the garage. 

To fully take-in the waiting room nearly sent me into a full blown panic attack.  There were at least 10 kids and their parents waiting to be seen (thankfully not by the same doc or we would have been there all day) with an additional group of kids in an art room.  One adorable little blonde girl, probably about 3 years old, was puking in a bucket.  Some kids were crying, half were bald and some looked fairly lethargic.  Needless to say, if you want a reminder of what cancer does to children, sit in this waiting room.  I was told the doc was running slightly behind and to take a seat and wait.  That wasn’t going to happen.  It was that moment that I realized Loyola was undoubtedly the place for us, for our life style and for our sanity.  Regardless of how wonderful Lurie’s Children’s Hospital will be when they open in June (which is supposed to be fabulous), the drive is too far and the waiting area would require me to down tranquilizers.  I don’t need a reminder of how bad it can be every clinic visit.  Just confirming, Loyola and Dr. Manera is where we are supposed to be.