Jesse and I made the early trip down to Norfolk on September 2nd. I was hoping that this would be a short visit due to potential holiday traffic. I should know better than now to make those kind of wishes 🙁
I was amazed at the amount of police officers I saw. I saw 10 police, and all but 1 had someone pulled over.
At clinic we went through the normal procedure of getting blood to test her ANC and chemistry. The chemistry in her blood I think is important for knowing if she can have the GMSCF shot. This shot will help rev up her immune system to get the antibody next week. The antibody is more effective when the immune system has more white blood cells running around.
They also needed a urine sample. I had thought about padding her diaper before we left, but couldn’t find anything that I thought wouldn’t potential skew the results.
By 11 am Jesse had peed 3 times, but we hadn’t collected enough for a sample. If I had caught the one where she peed in the floor… that would have been enough.
As we were waiting, a friend of ours was there for her final post chemo checkup. She and her mom came to the back door of the clinic and rang the doorbell. I don’t know what was wrong with all of us, but no adult answered the door. Jesse ran back to the door and waved at them, but she couldn’t figure out how to let them in. Luck for us they weren’t too mad (her father was sitting across from me).
At 1:00pm, we put her on Fred the IV pole in hopes of getting her to pee. My frustration level by this point was through the roof.
While we waited, we decided to change Jesse’s tape and caps. I know that Mike was excited we did that down there. I was hoping she’d pee, but no luck. Finally around 2:30pm she went to the bathroom.
We left CHKD around 2:45pm. By then, traffic was already backed up at the Midtown Tunnel. An Amtrack Thruway Bus #104 cut me off. I despise that. Here I was patiently waiting in line since the light, and all these extremely rude people come flying up and muscle their way in so that heaven forbid they have to wait an extra 10 minutes… which is what I had been doing.
Once I got past the Midtown Tunnel, I started hearing that the Monitor Merrimac and HRBT were backed up to. Luckily it was on the other side. The Monitor Merrimac was backed up 5 miles when I went by. As I rounded the curve from 664 to 64, the east side was a parking lot. The radio dj mentioned that the HRBT was undergoing maintenance. Really who had the bright idea to do maintenance on that tunnel on a Friday afternoon before a holiday? Traffic at 3:40pm was backed up 6 and 3/4 miles.
I also started hearing there was an accident around Ft Eustis. From the volume of cars heading west with me, I decided I’d had enough of the interstate for the day. Sleeping Jesse and I hopped off onto rt17, and went up to the Colonial Parkway. What a wonderful ride 🙂
At the York river there was a man flying 10 kites. I wish I had stopped to take a picture. It was a fantastic site.
Jesse and I got back her at 5pm. I am glad I went that way home because it gave me time to calm down and get over myself. Although Mike claims I am the grumpy one this morning. I guess he never thinks he gets grumpy…. It might not help that when he gets smart with me, I throw in his face about making us leave in the dark due to not having AC last Sunday. 🙂
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Congratulations to a friend we have met through clinic. She is done with treatment and all her scans look great! Please keep praying for her. We have been very blessed to met their family.
Also October 1, 2011 from Hoss’ Deli in Newport News, there will be a poker run to help a girl fighting Rhabdomyosarcoma. She will be traveling to Boston for part of her treatment. If you can take part in this ride, here is the information: Poker Ru from Hoss’ Deli