Intermission's Over - Time for Act II

Hey Guys!

Sooooo let's see... Saturday was the Survivor's picnic at the Cincinnati Zoo, courtesy of Children's Hospital. I feel bad because I was feeling a little grumpy all day (I'm not sure why - I also felt like I was on painkillers or something, but definitely haven't taken any in awhile!)

Anyway, we were able to meet up with some of Brian's old friends from the Little Star Foundation trips he'd gone on to Aspen and San Diego. We also ran into Debbie, my nurse, and Sarah, who is the fellow who works with Dr. Adams. She brought her boyfriend with her (who she'd talked about before when she would come to check on me in the hospital) and he was really cute! They made a great couple together, and it was really nice to see her!

We walked around the zoo for a bit - I'd wanted to do more, but I was super tired for some reason - I think it was the anticipation of starting treatment again on Monday. We did get to see some monkeys, some flamingos, the white lions, and a variety of bears. My favorite, however, was the zoo babies - a baby cheetah which was SUPER adorable (and acted just like a regular cat!) and a baby bearcat. Honestly, I had no idea that the bearcat was a real animal - I thought it was just something UC had made up to sound intimidating!

Me & Brian in front of a fountain on the zoo lake

(I cracked a lens on my favorite sunglasses so I had to make do with Brian's old ones - which are a little big for me!)

The zoo always has beautiful landscaping, so my mom likes to take pictures of it for ideas for our gardens... Sometimes she likes to put us in them.

The building in the back is (I think) the Reptile House... it's my mom's favorite building at the zoo...

I started treatments up again yesterday (yay....) and was a little bit surprised to be put in an infusion room as opposed to a chemo room in the Day Hospital. Mostly because there was a tiny, tiny half-bed type thing... not really a recliner, but not really a bed either. More like a combination of the two. I found out that the reason I got put into a room usually used for transfusions (kids only stay for an hour or so) is because there are so many kids who need to be in isolation rooms (the normal chemo rooms with a private bathroom so there's no contact with outside people) that they had to put the "less critical" patients (ie me) into the infusion rooms... which just have a public bathroom in the hall. This public bathroom was a little bit tricky to navigate connected to a giant pole, especially when I was getting so many fluids that I had to USE the bathroom every hour (or more) and parents from isolation kept using the bathroom (even though it was clearly marked "Patients Only") so sometimes I would have to wait for someone to come clean it before I could actually go.

My mom and I were thinking up ways that I could pretend to be sick enough to be ensured a normal room... All of them involved faking the symptoms they always ask if you have (fever, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, sore throat) but that always runs the risk of me seeming TOO sick and not getting my chemo, which would suck and push me back further!

Arielle came to visit, which was super fun - we ended up watching several hours of Wife Swap with my mom - what is it about chemo that makes you become addicted to really, really stupid TV???

I also had a funny experience with "room service" - I had read the menu, and seen that under soups they offered the following: Chicken Noodle, Vegetable, Chicken Broth, Beef Broth, and Vegetarian Chili. So, my mom called down to food services (the phone was too far away from my pole for me to use it without unplugging) and ordered me a bowl of chili. Since vegetarian chili was the only one listed on the soup choices, we didn't feel the need to specify. Unfortunately, when they brought my food, I got TWO bowls of Gold Star chili - no spaghetti or cheese or anything. Just bowls of chili. For those of you not from Cincinnati, Gold Star is a type of Cincinnati-Style chili, which is more like a sauce, and always (ALWAYS) served either on spaghetti or a hot dog (Coney style). This is not a kind of chili you want to eat plain (like regular chili). Needless to say, I ate a few spoonfuls and gave up, sticking with my wheat toast. Oh well... probably chili and nausea don't go too well together...

Me & Arielle stuffed into my tiny chair-bed

This week is UC's open house type thing where students can go and meet professors and such, so I'm excited to go meet some of the new professors I'll have. School starts a week from tomorrow! FINALLY!

Lots of Love,

Lauren

ps check out the previous post for content updates and NEW PHOTOS! wooo!