Exploring Minneapolis

Dear Readers,

Since we had a week off before starting chemo, my mom and I decided to try exploring the city a little bit. After transplant, I won't be able to get out a lot so this was our chance to see what Minneapolis has to offer. We definitely found more than I expected.

Friday: On Friday we decided to head over to the midtown area. Janet, my social worker, told us about a place called the Midtown Global Market. It's basically like a flea market in a huge building. There are tons of booths with different kinds of food from all over the world. I decided to try some seafood. I got a crab cake burger with lettuce, onion, tomato and chipotle aioli. It was delicious and spicy. It also came with some sort of beet salad, which I did not care for. Here are some pictures:

My mom decided to try some authentic Mexican food. She got chips with a few different sauces and guacamole and two other dishes that I couldn't tell you the names of. They both were made with chicken. The guacamole was ridiculously fresh and semi-chunky.

There were also tons of booths with different things you could buy from all over the world.

There were Mexican bakeries, international candy shops, clothes from African countries, Eco-friendly products and more. I bought a bracelet made by women in Ghana. It's made of clay beads and the money from my purchase will go back to the women who made it. I also bought a hand-braided bracelet with a bamboo cross on it. Lastly, I bought a t-shirt made out of bamboo. It looks just like a regular t-shirt but it's completely Eco-friendly and it's also supposed to be really good for your health. Here are some pictures of the booths:

I also saw my first White Castle ever!

Afterwards we drove around the midtown/uptown area. Both areas were pretty trendy and hippie-ish. We could definitely tell that we weren't far from a college campus.

Saturday: On Saturday we went to Trader Joe's and picked up tons of snacks. My mom's

favorite are these crackers that taste like everything bagels. My favorite is the herb goat cheese. The Trader Joe's here is so big that they even have their own parking garage for all of the customers. When we arrived, we were greeted by a parking attendant who had to direct us where to go because they were so full. There's a picture on the right.

For dinner, we went and had sushi. Sushi is a food that I won't be able to eat for awhile after transplant because of the raw fish. My mom got a Philly roll- made with smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives. I got the spicy tuna roll- my favorite. We also got two pieces of crab and two pieces of scallop.

Later that night we went to see the movie 'Date Night'. It was hilarious! Definitely worth seeing. We also got lost on the way to the movie and ended up in an area that is very similar to the Power & Light District.

Sunday/Monday: We mostly spent Sunday and Monday just relaxing and hanging out around the Ronald McDonald House. We ordered Punch Pizza on Monday. I got the same pizza as before. It was delicious, of course. I think this might be my favorite pizza ever.

Tuesday: I spent Tuesday trying to finish up my graduation announcements and relaxing. We went to the Dinkytown area for dinner and ate at a great place called Kafe 421. Dinkytown is another college area with cool coffee shops and restaurants.

Wednesday: Wednesday morning I got up and walked over to the BMT clinic to get my labs done to check my blood counts to see if I'll need a blood transfusion before my surgery on Friday. Turns out I did need it. After that, I went back to bed for awhile. Later, my mom and I went to check out the 'best hot dog in Minneapolis. It was at this hole-in-the-wall type place called Weinery. Clever. It was a very...interesting...place. It was super tiny and was run by one guy who kept running back and forth between tables and the kitchen. It had an old diner type feel and they only took cash. I got a Chicago style hot dog, cheese fries and cole slaw. The Chicago style hot dog was pretty close to being the real deal and the fries were made from fresh cut potatoes. Not bad. The only down side was that the place looked pretty grungy so I doubt I'll be going back after transplant because of the germ issue. Later that day I wrote my will and filled out my health care directive. Not exactly fun but it needed to be done. Doing things like that makes it hard not to think about what's about to happen.

Thursday: Today I went up to the BMT clinic again to get a red blood cell transfusion. I got two bags so it took most of the morning. I slept through the entire thing because they gave me a dose of IV benedryl beforehand. IV benedryl is one thing I will miss after I'm healthy. It puts you to sleep in literally minutes. After that, I came back to our room at the Ronald McDonald House and took a nap. Then we went out to the Mall of America to have dinner at this Italian place I really like. Now I'm just counting down the hours until my surgery tomorrow. I have to get up insanely early tomorrow morning because I'm the first surgery of the day. I'm starting to get a little nervous because I'm actually starting to think it's going to happen this time. The offices are closed for the night so I don't think I'll be getting a call saying 'transplant is off again'. This should be reassuring. It's not. I'm mostly starting to get nervous about my surgery tomorrow morning because they have to deal with my jugular vein, yes- that's the vein that can make you bleed to death if hit. In case any of you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read about my surgery here. Thankfully I'll be able to get my hickman removed when all of this is over. A hickman is really important because it's used for giving me chemo drugs and transfusions and my actual transplant. This surgery is riskier for me because my blood counts are so low and that makes me more prone to uncontrollable bleeding. I'm sure that everything will be fine but I can't help but be nervous. Starting tomorrow I'm going to attempt to blog daily so that everyone can hear the details about my surgery/chemo/transplant. We'll see how that goes.

**Reason of the Day: Tuesday, I talked to my little brother, Ethan, on the phone. He was telling me about his day at preschool and said that he punched a boy named Trevor in the 'dinger' because he wouldn't play with him. I asked Ethan how he would feel if somebody punched him in the 'dinger' . He said he would be "very sad". If only all conflicts could be resolved by a few punches in the 'dinger', this world would be a much different place. Preschool drama is always a reason to smile (RTS).

Work-up Week (Take 2)

Dear Readers,

I took a little break from blogging this past week. Mostly because I needed a break and also because I haven't been getting very many comments so I felt a little discouraged. No worries, I'm back to blogging now.

This past week has been pretty crazy. After getting back from New York, I was having really

bad muscle pain in my legs and feet. I started having muscle spasms and I could barely walk. I think it's a side effect from one of the medicines I was on because the med is known to cause muscle pain. The walking I did in New York probably triggered the spasms and pain. After a few days of pain, nothing was working to ease the pain so my doctor suggested that I be admitted to the hospital so that I could get some stronger pain meds. I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the hospital and left Saturday afternoon after my pain dulled a little bit.

Saturday night I had a few friends over for pizza to hang out before I left town. It was nice to see some people before leaving.

Sunday morning I went to breakfast with my dad, stepmom, brother (Jameson) and half brother (Ethan). After that, my mom and I left town. We drove straight to Minneapolis without making too many stops. We got to the Ronald McDonald House around 4 p.m. and checked in right away. We had a wheel chair delivered to the house for me to use until my leg pain goes away. We lucked out and got a really cool room! It's basically like a small apartment, with a kitchen, living area, bathroom and one bedroom. We also have a private, screened-in porch attached to our room. We're on the second floor so it's a nice balcony-type thing. There are two beds in the bedroom, which my mom and I will share. There's also a pull-out couch in the living room for friends to sleep on if they visit. We have one TV in the living room but my dad is going to bring up another TV for us to put in the bedroom so my mom and I don't fight over what to watch. On the right there is a picture I took of the front of the house.

Monday morning started my Work-up Week. Work-up Week is the week before transplant where you have to get a bunch of tests done to make sure that nothing is wrong before you start transplant. On Monday I had an Echocardiogram, EKG, Chest X-ray and Radiation consultation. We ate lunch at a local place on campus called Sally's Saloon. It's really nice that the hospital and Ronald McDonald House are both located on the University of Minnesota campus because we can walk to basically anywhere we want. For dinner we went out to the Mall of America and ate at Bubba Gump.

Tuesday morning I had a Pulmonary Function Test, History and Physical, and

CT scan. After that I had to get a Bone Marrow Biopsy. I've had several of these before but they never get any more pleasant. First they sedate me and then take some marrow and bone from the back of my hip. I'm usually pretty sore for a few days afterwards. This one didn't hurt too bad and the sedation meds put me to sleep really quickly. After that I headed back to the Ronald McDonald House to sleep for the rest of the day.

On Wednesday I had a line consultation in the morning. The line consultation is where we talked about me getting my hickman put in. The hickman is important because that's how I will be getting transfusions, chemo and other drugs. Thankfully I'll only have to have it for a few months and then they can remove it because I already have my port. Medical devices like hickmans and ports are really important for people who need to be accessed constantly because it's much safer than constantly trying to access random veins. After the line consultation I met with someone from Pharmacy to talk about all of the drugs that I will be on during transplant. Then we walked over and ate lunch at a place called Stub and Herbs. Next I met with my social worker named Janet to talk about what to expect during transplant. Janet is really nice and she helps make things easier for patients and families. Then I met with Dr. MacMillan. She's not my doctor but she will be the doctor who is in charge of the floor when I'm admitted to the

hospital. There are nine Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) doctors who rotate their time on the unit in the hospital. They each take turns being in charge for 14 days at a time. While they are in charge, they go around to check on the patients daily and they make sure that everything runs smoothly. She will also coordinate with my actual doctor, who is Dr. Tolar.

Dr. MacMillan had looked at the results of all of my work-up tests and we talked about what her conclusion was. She basically said that everything looks great and I'm ready to start transplant. We were going to start chemo early next week but if we did that, some of my family members wouldn't be able to come up for the actual transplant day. So instead, we've decided to wait a few days. The plan is to admit me to the hospital next Friday, April 30th. I'll have the surgery to get my line placed on that day and then I'll start the chemo on Saturday, May 1st. That will put the actual transplant day on Tuesday, May 11th. My dad, stepmom, two stepsisters, brother and half brother will all be coming up so that they can be with me on the actual transplant day. It's really important to me that my whole family be there because this will definitely be the most important day of my life. It's the beginning of my new life.

Today, Thursday, I only had one test left which was an ultrasound of my abdomen. After that, we walked over to this really yummy place called Punch Neapolitan Pizza. I had a pizza with arugula, goat cheese, prosciutto and cracked red pepper. It was spicy and delicious and thin, just like I like it. These pizzas are cooked in 90 seconds! There's a picture of my pizza on the left. The rest of the afternoon was pretty relaxing. I finished my graduation announcements and mailed several 'thank you' cards for my recent trip to NYC.

Now that we're done with testing and have about a week off, we're probably going to explore some local restaurants and maybe do a few fun things while we wait. I'm still in a wheel chair so my goal is to be able to walk by the time I'm admitted to the hospital. I'll be sure to update before I go into the hospital next.

If you're not already following this blog on facebook, you can become a fan by clicking on the facebook link on the right side of this blog. Keep reading and leave comments so I know you're reading! Also feel free to tell me what YOUR reason to smile is for today.

**Reason of the Day: After dinner, while walking back to our room, my mom and I were stopped by a young dad in the hallway. He was grinning from ear to ear and couldn't help but chat us up even though we had never seen us before. At the first chance he got he pulled out several pictures from his pocket and asked if we wanted to see his baby. He explained that he finally got to hold his two-week-old baby for the first time today because he was finally healthy enough. Newborn babies are always a reason to smile (RTS).

New York, I Love You (Part 3)

Sunday:

On Sunday we got up and met some girls for brunch at 1834 Bar & Burger. The girls were all really nice and they even gave me a scrapbook that I can use to scrapbook about NYC. They filled out the first several pages with some of their favorite places in the city. I can't want to fill in the rest of the pages with my NYC experiences.

After brunch, Laura and I went to a film festival where they were showing several short films. The first film was my favorite, after that it was kind of downhill. It was still a fun experience.

Next we decided to venture into Brooklyn. Unfortunately, my legs were killing me from walking too much so we didn't get to walk around Brooklyn a lot. We did eat at a really good restaurant called Lodge. I got the gouda mac & cheese and it was delicious.

After dinner my legs and feet were pretty sore so we just went back to Laura's apartment and hung out for the rest of the night. It was a fairly low key day but I had a ton of fun!

Monday:

I got up and packed all of my stuff so that I would be ready to catch my flight later that day. Then I took a taxi to the Empire State Building so that I could visit the college I will be going to next year. It's called The King's College and it's located inside of the Empire State Building. I met with my counselor and took a tour of the apartments where I'll be living next year.

Next I made a stop at a cupcake shop called Crumbs to get some cupcakes for my brother and mom. I got my brother a set of 12 different mini cupcakes. For my mom, I customized a 'six pack' of big cupcakes. They all look really delicious and I'm proud that all of the cupcakes actually made it home without any bites missing.

After that, I headed over to Laura's office at MTV to hangout and blog for a bit. We had lunch in the MTV cafeteria and I basically took it easy for awhile. Then we went over to the Aerie store in Times Square. Laura's roommate, Lauren, works there and wanted me to come by to check it out. I ended up getting tons of comfy lounge wear that I can wear in the hospital. Lauren and her co-workers were nice enough to put together a little gift bag for me, too.

Right around the time that I was purchasing all of my comfy clothes, I got a text from my mom that read 'your flight has been cancelled'. I called her, assuming it was a joke. Turns out it wasn't. Laura called the airline and they told her that the flight was cancelled because there were problems with the plane. My flight had to be rescheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. At first, I was bummed because I was really tired and ready to come home and rest. But it ended up being okay because Laura had a clothing swap party planned for that night and I got to go.

I took a taxi back to Laura's place early so that I could clean her apartment for her because she hadn't had time to clean while I was in town. When she got home from work, I helped her make some party food for her friends. She had 8 friends come over and they all brought clothes that they didn't want anymore. Then we drew numbers and got to pick out stuff we wanted. It was really fun to see people fight over the good stuff. I didn't want to participate because I hadn't contributed anything to the party but Laura insisted so I did snag a couple great things. I got a black marc jacobs clutch, an ed hardy scarf (it's actually a really cute floral print, doesn't look tool-ish), a D&G hat and some jewelry. Alex, the one who did my hair the other night, also brought me a gift bag with some beauty goodies. It was really fun to hang out and laugh and swap clothes. All of Laura's friends are really nice.

Tuesday:

This morning I got up around 4:30 (3:30 our time) and headed out to the airport. Thankfully my flight was on time and I got into Kansas City around 8:30 a.m. I came straight to the hospital where I'm now waiting for the results of my labs. We're just checking to make sure I'm okay after my long trip. Hopefully I'll be able to go home soon so that I can take some pain meds for my legs and so that I can get some sleep.

**Reason of the Day: Staying an extra day actually ended up being great because it gave me more time to hang out with Laura and all of her great friends. I like to believe that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes that's hard. Belief is always a reason to smile (RTS).

New York, I Love You (Part 2)

Friday:

Friday I slept in until after ten because I was exhausted from my night of Broadway fun. After I woke up, I took a nice walk from Laura's apartment to her MTV office in Times Square. We ate lunch in the MTV cafeteria and I got to hang out in the office for the afternoon. Laura's co-worker, Dre, showed me some cool/complicated computer stuff and burned me a CD of some sweet music. Laura and I took a nice break to enjoy some chatroulette fun.

After work, Laura and I stopped by H&M and bought a million scarves. Not really, but we bought a lot. Earlier in the day we did some research on some cool ways to wear head scarves. I will be the most stylish bald chemo patient ever.

Later that night, Laura's friend named Alex came over. Alex does hair and makeup and is a pretty awesome person. She came over to do my hair and hang out. We ordered sushi and she cut several inches off my hair. We also dyed my hair an intense shade of red. It's lovely. If anyone happens to need a hairdresser, you should just come to New York and have Alex do it. It's worth it. Really. I've decided that she's hired when I move out here for college. After my hair was done, it was extremely late but we decided my hair was too good to waste so Alex did my makeup and Laura dressed me up and we went out. We were out very late. Very, very late. I met some interesting New Yorkers. Very, very interesting.

Saturday:

Due to our late night festivities, I also slept in today. For lunch, we went to this awesome arepas place called Caracas. It was delicious. They have the best guacamole I've ever tasted in my life and their chips are homemade. Mmm. After that, we walked around a little and then headed back to Laura's place to take a power nap.

After our nap, we headed over to NBC to see the taping of SNL. My mom has connections to a woman who works for NBC and she got us tickets to the show. Here's a picture of me with my SNL ticket and new haircut:

Not only that, but we ended up in the "special line" which landed us in seats on the floor. The actual studio has some stadium-type seats in the back but then there are a handful of seats located on the actual studio floor, right in front of the stage. These seats are located in front of the center stage and they rotate so that you can turn from side to side to see all of the different sets. We were in the third row but off to the side so there weren't any seats in front of us. Almost all of the scenes took place on sets on the right side of the stage, right next to our seats. Laura and I were on the end so we literally could have reached out and touched several stars and cameras. Creepy. Tina Fey was the host and she was amazing. We really lucked out by getting her as the host. Her Sarah Palin impression was awesome, as always. There was also a cameo from Steve Martin and Justin Bieber was the musical guest. It was definitely a blast and I'm so glad that I got a chance to see the show, especially with Tina Fey as the host. Seeing SNL was actually on my bucket list so I'm excited to check that off the list! Here's an autograph I got from Tina:

SNL wore us out so we decided to just come back to the apartment instead of going out again tonight. Now we're watching SNL on TV. Tomorrow I think we're going to head over to Brooklyn. This trip has been so exciting and I can't wait for more fun to come!

**Reason of the Day: I've been a fan of SNL for quite awhile and I always look forward to watching the show every Saturday. No matter what, SNL always makes me laugh. Laughter is always a reason to smile (RTS).

Stay tuned for more updates from my exciting trip!

New York, I Love You (Part 1)

Lovely Readers,

Anyone who knows anything about me knows one thing is for certain: I am in love with a little place called NEW YORK CITY. Yes, it is true. I do not get to visit nearly as often as I would like but I will be going to college there next year so I will finally be able to call this glorious city my home. Until then, I will have to settle for a short visit. I leave tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. and will be spending 5 days/4 nights in Manhattan.

Today has been a crazy day of packing and pumping myself up for the trip. I also had the very exciting experience of being able to stop my iron chelation medicine! I've been hooked up the medicine pump since December and it felt sooo good to be able to unhook myself. I'm very thankful that the medicine has been working so quickly because it has resulted in my doctor giving me permission to stop the medicine while I am away so that I can actually enjoy my trip.

I will update this post as often as possible throughout and/or after my trip to fill you in on all of the juicy details. For n ow, I thought I would give you a little background on the amazing friend that I am going to stay with while I am away.

Her name is Laura. She's pretty awesome. Laura was actually raised here in the KC area and moved to NYC after college to pursue journalism. (sound familiar? fast forward my life ten years.) She now works for MTV and has connections to just about everyone/everything worth knowing in NYC. We met about two years ago because my hairdresser used to do her hair when she was in KC. Over the past two years, she has been responsible for so many of the great opportunities that I've been able to experience. I've visited her MTV offices twice in the past, she got me on TRL where I got to sit on the VIP couch, she introduced me to a woman at ABC who let me hang out in the ABC offices twice AND she got me access to meet Diane Sawyer,

Robin Roberts and Charlie Gibson. She also took me to the MGMT/beck concert when she wa

s in town and we ended up hanging out with MGMT in Westport afterwards. Needless to say, she has soo many connections and I am so thankful that she has shared many of those connections with me.

This trip is the last time that I will be in NYC until after transplant and probably the last time before moving out there for good. It will be the first time I fly alone, first time I catch a taxi by myself and first time I'm alone in a big city! I'm very excited. I know Laura has a few tricks up her sleeve but I won't give them all away now. You'll have to keep checking my blog for updates about the exciting things that happen. For now, I'm going to go finish packing and head to bed. I have to be up at 4 a.m.! Yikes.

Thursday: My flight left KC at 7 a.m. and I arrived in NYC a little after 10.

I managed to be the first off the plane and grabbed a cab to head over to Laura's apartment. After meeting Laura at her apartment, I dropped off my stuff and we walked over to her MTV office. I spent the rest of the morning hanging with her and her co-workers. For lunch, we walked over to the Chelsea Market area and ate lunch at Friedman's . After that, we headed upstairs into the Food Network building. Laura and I met her friend who showed us a taping of Ten Dollar Dinners. In case any of you were wondering, they aren't real houses. They're sets. I knew it. Here's a picture of the set:

It was really interesting to see how much cooking actually happens behind the scenes and to see how much it takes to make the food look good. We also got to take a look at the test kitchens, where the chefs and their assistants spend most of their time testing recipes and such. I even saw Miriam Garron, Bobby Flay's Assistant on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, working in the kitchen with another chef. Here's a picture of the test kitchens, if you look closely on the left you can see Miriam:

After that, we walked The High Line. The High Line was originally used for freight trains but it has now been turned into an elevated park. It's beautiful! I forgot to snap a picture but they've created a walkway with plants and flowers growing among the old tracks. It's really neat.

Later that day, I got ready for my night on Broadway by getting ready in the MTV offices. Laura and her co-worker, Becky, decided to make an impromptu hair salon. Here's a picture of Laura doing my hair and Becky doing Dre's hair. You can't tell from the picture but Dre's hair is really long and he got it braided.

Once my hair was done I headed over to see opening night of The Addams Family. Laura's friend, Jason, has a sister who is one of the producers for the show. She was able to get Jason tickets. Since it was opening night, there were celebrities and important people everywhere. The actual theater had two boxes and our seats were in one of the boxes! It was hard to spot celebrities but I did see Andy Dick who was seated a few seats away from us. I also heard of several other celebrities being there. One of them was Hugh Jackman. I didn't personally see him but this article says he brought a girl from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Two years ago, I received a wish from The Dream Factory, a similar charity, and know how great it feels to have a dream come true while dealing with a serious illness. Props to Hugh for being so generous. Also note, I got a picture in front of the same background as him! Here are a few pictures from he night:

The show was really great! I didn't know much about The Addams Family before seeing

the show but I was pleasantly surprised at how funny and well-done it was. After the show, we were lucky enough to attend the after party. The party was fabulous. There was great food, an open bar and a dance floor. Jason kept pointing out all of the billionaires and important people we passed. Jason also made me take this really cheesy picture.---->

By the end of the night, my feet were quite tired so I fell asleep shortly after returning to Laura's.

**Reason of the Day: Jason's sister, Eva, was the one who gave me a free box seat ticket to the show. Eva hadn't even met me but had heard about my blog and wanted to do something nice. The kindness of strangers is always a reason to smile (RTS). **

THE Ferriscan

I promised you an entry about this weekend so here it is:

Thursday:

We left KC around noon and made it to Minneapolis in seven hours. I drove the last six of the seven hours. We took my car this time instead of my mom's van so that made driving much more enjoyable for me. I don't like driving tanks. I much prefer my tiny two-door. My mom napped and read most of the time while I listened to music. Anyone who has made the drive from KC to Minneapolis knows that there is nothing more exciting to say about the drive.

We got to the hotel around 7 and rushed to the room so that my mom could catch Survivor. After that, we grabbed some dinner and that's about it. Pretty uneventful.

It's now past midnight and I have to be up in less than six hours. I should be asleep. I am not.

I can't help but think about tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we head to the hospital for me to get the ferriscan done. Yes, THE ferriscan. The ferriscan that will determine whether I can start transplant now. If the results are good, we pack up and get ready for transplant. If the results are bad, I go back home and wait longer. Either way, transplant is unavoidable. Now it's just a matter of 'how soon can I get this hell-fest over with?'. I'm done waiting. For some reason I have a bad feeling about this trip. Maybe it's because it seems like the past few months have been one disappointment after another. I would like to think positively but I don't want to get my hopes up again. What if my iron levels are still too high? How much longer can I live like this? How much longer can I feel like this? Am I ever going to be healthy again? Does ANYBODY have the answers to these questions? I sure don't.

I should try to sleep. Tomorrow isn't going to be any easier than today.

Friday:

So I ended up getting two hours of sleep last night. Not fun. We made it to the hospital and I checked in for my ferriscan at 8 am. The ferriscan was pretty easy, it basically just involved me laying in an MRI machine for half an hour while they took pictures of my liver. The pictures have now been sent off to be looked. We should have results in about a week or so. Waiting for results will be the hard part. To say I'm anxious would be an understatement.

Afterwards we took a tour of the BMT (bone marrow transplant) unit. We took a tour back in August but I couldn't remember what anything looked like. The unit is only for bone marrow transplant patients and it consists of 20 rooms. There's a nurse's station in the middle of the unit and the rooms surround the station so that it ends up being one big loop. There are big rooms and small rooms, I've heard that it's better to be in a smaller room because that means you're doing well. If they move you to a big room, it means you need more attention/care. The small rooms (where I hope to spend the entirety of my hospital stay) are extremely small. There's a private bathroom with a shower, a hospital bed, a roll-away bed for one parent, a tv, a wii or ps3, a window and a computer in each room. The doors to the rooms have to be closed at all times and you can't have more than three people in your room at a time. There's also a parent room inside the unit where parents can go to take a break. That room has a living area and a kitchen. The place seems pretty nice but it was hard not to notice how quiet it was. The hall/loop was empty except for nurses. A typical hospital stay for a BMT patient is 6-8 weeks. After that, I get discharged and go to stay in the Ronald McDonald House for the remainder of the 100 days. More details on that later on IF I end up starting transplant soon.

After the hospital we headed to the Mall of America for some quick shopping and lunch. We originally planned to spend the afternoon shopping but I was exhausted from lack of sleep so we ended up leaving town early. We had also planned to only drive part of the way today and then spend the night at a hotel and finish the drive on Saturday. Once we were on the road I realized I just wanted to go home as soon as possible so we drove straight home. I wanted to drive but my mom made me take a nap first because she didn't trust me to drive after only two hours of sleep. I don't blame her. We just got home a little bit ago and I'm exhausted so I'm getting ready to head to bed. Tomorrow is a new day. It's time to take a break from the stress/anxiety and start getting excited for my NYC trip! More details on that soon.

**Reason of the Day: Today I saw multiple wind turbines. Alternative energy is always a reason to smile (RTS). --you probably won't understand this one unless you're a debater. or a nerd. or both.