S and I headed back to Chicago a few days after my birthday. We were only there for 2 days--it was a super quick trip. Learning a little bit from our previous trip, we decided to fly into Midway and take the train. We fell in love with CTA last time we were there--it made everything so easy.
I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how much I love this city. Seeing the skyline rise over south Chicago as we approached made me feel Almost as excited as when we landed in Central America a few years ago.
It was early November when we went so the majority of fall colors were already gone, but the south end of Grant Park still had plenty of beauty.
We knew our time would be limited so we decided to go to Adler Planetarium as soon as we got there. It was pretty much like your typical planetarium as far as star shows go. We probably spent 2-3 hours there.
We had just seen The Martian so this replica made me super excited!
I thought this was AWESOME! It's the original suit that Jim Lovell wore on the Apollo 13 mission. And I didn't realize until afterwards that I caught the reflection of the portrait of the 3 astronauts from that mission.
Dusk came a little earlier this time around, since it was a little later in the year. It was snowing back home but the weather in Chicago was WARM! It was so nice!
It seemed eerie to have everything shut down for the season. Buckingham Fountain was alive and running last time we were there. This time they were cleaning it for the season.
We stopped at the Jelly Bean, err, Cloud Gate. Obviously it was cause for a few photo ops.
During the summer there was this random dining patio in the middle of the park. When we saw that it was really an ice skating rink it made more sense! We wished it had been open. It would have been fun to ice skate in Chicago.
This time around we stayed at a hotel called Hotel Felix. We loved it! Maybe a little more than the Inn, even. The Inn was definitely more convenient, but the rooms here were way nicer. True to our travel style we went to a delicious, highly recommended Italian restaurant, the Rosebud on Rush. We were maybe a tad under-dressed, but they were accommodating (which was good considering I literally had one change of clothing with me.)
So the reason for the trip. And also the reason for my blogging hiatus as I've been back and forth on how public to take this. Ultimately, I decided it's not really secret...and the majority of people who read my blog already know anyway. (And whatever my future holds, this is now a part of my history.)
A few weeks after we got home from our trip last May, I felt prompted to start looking into a study being down out of Chicago for people who have MS. Basically, they have found that, by performing Stem Cell Transplants on these people, they are ultimately putting them into long-term remission. I don't think they can outright call it a 'cure' because the study is only a decade old and they don't know the long term outcome. But it appears to be the closest thing to a cure.
S had gone on a patient earlier that month who has MS. She was ten years older than me and her disease has transformed from relapsing/remitting to secondary progressive. When this happens, there is basically no going back. Your nervous system deteriorates--to what degree you won't know. In this lady's case she will likely fatally develop brain atrophy. She frequently falls. (You can read about her here.) She has two children, older than Bean and Boy, but definitely still children. They often are there to help take care of her but sometimes it's just too much and they have to call the fire department. Anyway, she told S that every day she prays that she will come in contact with one person who she can have a positive influence on and when S told her about me, she said maybe that day it was me. Maybe she was right. I've had such an interesting journey with the illness--from feeling self-pity to acceptance to anger to indifference to outright denial at times. But I've never had this urgency to Fight It until I heard this lady's story.
I found out some information at a doctor's appointment and was kind of directed on where to look for more information. I found this particular study out of Chicago done at Northwestern which, believe it or not, was RIGHT across the street from where we had stayed 3 weeks prior. I do not believe in coincidences. I contacted them. They wrote back. I sent them my information and a summary of my disease progression. And then they contacted me and asked me to come to Chicago. It was the most elated feeling I've ever had since my college acceptance letters.
A bunch of stuff happened in the interim that I won't include here, but let's just say the practice I currently see isn't exactly who I thought they were...which is a positive enough reason for me to have gone through all of this as it may end up directing me to where I need to go locally.
So anyway in the months leading up to it I felt a whole range of emotions, ranging from "I really hope this happens" to "You are absolutely crazy." It is a scary thing. I would have to subject myself to chemotherapy and there are always risks to being immunosuppressed. Like I basically have to weigh my life and well-being against the chance that I could essentially come out of this on the other side cured. Ultimately S and I decided it was worth giving it a shot.
I have never been more nervous for anything, but I met Dr. Burt who is the premier immunologist heading up this study. Like, he is world-renowned for what he does. He's probably the closest I'll ever come to meeting a celebrity. He was honest with me--the most recent MRI didn't show any enhancements of lesions, which is a GOOD thing. He's willing to perform the transplant on anyone who really wants it, but his recommendation for me was that it would probably be better to wait until I am actively relapsing. My biggest concern was the approaching end of the study--2017. He assured me that this wasn't going anywhere. I left his office with the instruction to call the office when my MRI showed enhancing lesions and I would come back for another assessment. Which means that if I still decide to go through this, I'm going back to Chicago. (darn.)
I had another doctor's appointment that afternoon, but at that point it seemed pointless to go if I was just going to have to come back and start the process again, so we cancelled it and made the most out of our day in Chicago.
We had gone back and forth on whether to go to the planetarium or the aquarium the evening before. So with a free afternoon Shedd aquarium was the obvious choice. It was really big. And really neat. You can see the planetarium in the background of this picture.
We walked back through Grant Park and headed up Michigan Ave. into the city.
I think the number one thing I regretted not doing on our previous trip was going up Sears Tower (now known as Willis Tower.) It is my favorite building in the world and is such an iconic part of my youth. I'd never been to Chicago, but my dad traveled there a lot for work so I felt like I had been there before. S and I made it a must-do for this trip. We decided to head up there around dusk. 103 floors--holy crap.
We timed it absolutely perfectly. The city was beautiful as the lights were all coming on.
Their big thing is called 'The Ledge' where you get to stand out over the city below. I don't like heights. But it was pretty exhilarating!
Afterwards we headed to Giordano's for pizza. It was good, but not as good as Gino's. But there is no way of knowing until you've tried both. Then it was that heart-breaking time to head out of the city. We had an early flight the next morning so we opted to stay overnight close to the airport. To say I didn't want to leave is an understatement.
It was good to get home again--we made sure we got the kiddos some sufficient swag. I can't wait until baseball season starts up and we can all head out in our Cubs gear. I love Chicago.
