November 2011

The week of Halloween week was the worst week of my life!  Steve & I fought like crazy and broke up on Friday after he had a problem at work, working for Colleen.  On the 2nd I went to the dentist and had the one tooth fixed, I also saw Dr.M that day my count was 49K but she decided that I should try Rituxin again.  On the 3rd I saw Dr. Egan and he upped my Buprion to 300mg daily.  I was having a real hard time dealing with fighting with Steve & being worried about having Rituxin again.  On Saturday the 5th, Steve came over to pick up all of his things from the house, it was really over.  I was so mad at him and he was being such a jerk to me and that was when I noticed a hickey on his neck!!  Really!!!  WTF!!!!  I told him I was going to tell his mom that I think he is drinking again and he said don't go anywhere near my moms car.  So I got in my car and drove away!  I was pissed and should not have been driving.  I drove around for a bit until I cooled off.  Becki was texting me asking if I was OK.  I was not!  She invited me to go with her to this thing at Bourbon Street next Friday so I said sure why not.  On the 8th I went in to have the Rituxin again, the nurses in the day hospital all remembered me from my brush with death back in February. My count that day was 20K.  They gave me Tylenol and benydryl and we got started nice and slow.  After the first hour it was time to increase the speed a bit.  After about ten minutes my throat got a bit tight and I felt like I could not swallow so mom got the nurse and the stopped the drip.  She gave me a shot of benydryl and waited for about 20 minutes then we started again and it was fine from then on.  On 11/11/11, Veteran's Day, we went to school for the program which is my favorite thing about Pleasantdale.  That night I went with Becki to the ladies night at Bourbon Street, it was a great time!  I drank way too much and ripped a t-shirt off a stripper!!!  On the 15th I went in for round 2 of Rituxin my count had gone way up to 108K, it went fine and we were home in time for Caley.  Caley & I baked Pumpkin bread that night.  My prednisone was lowered to 10mg daily.  I had my count checked at Burr Ridge on the 19th and it was 118K.  I have to mention that at this time I am not speaking to Steve or I should say he is not talking to me at all!  I was a mess, I cried all day and all night, I could not imagine not being with Steve ever again, but I felt like it had finally happened and we were over forever.  On the 18th I got a call from Colleen saying that J.J. called her and said that Steve was in the hospital in a diabetic coma!  She also mentioned that he said that Steve's girlfriend was asking him to get Steve's mom's phone number.  Great I'm in a terrible state of mind and now I have to worry about him too.  I call J.J. and get what he knows from him and then I call Loyola.  Steve picks up the phone and I was like are you OK and he said sorta and then he was like how do you know I am here.  I told him J.J. called and said his girlfriend wanted his moms number.  I was like you have a girlfriend and he said yeah.  I was heart broken and I hung up.  Glad that he wasn't in a coma, it turned out that he had pneumonia and not a diabetic problem.  I was crushed anyway and I thought it was never going to get any better. I have to mention that a few months back I decided that I wanted to make amends with Melissa, so I had made plans for her to come over tonite and talk.  It was real good and I think it was something I really needed to do.  It was a very powerful lesson in forgiveness, I never thought I could do.  Sunday the 20th proved me right, I wake up and go to the bathroom to then find blood in the toilet, and no it was not that time of the month yet.  I called Dr.M and go her answering service and left a message about what had happened.  I was told way back in the beginning to watch for this but it had never happened so I didn't know what to do.  They said go to the ER and have it checked out.  Great now I would be in the same building as Steve & I had to do everything I could not to go and see him, who was in ICU by the way.  The ER was so slow that day and we were ignored a lot because I was not really in an emergency situation.  They finally came and took my blood.  I decided to call Steve & tell him I was there in the ER, he was worried about me.  I love him so much and really wanted him to say that I should come and see him but he didn't.  Mom got mad at me for talking to him so she left and went to get food.  The Bears were playing the chargers at 3 that day so weren't missing the game.  They came back and my count was 118K so we got to leave and I was told to make an appointment with Dr. Reiger ASAP.  The bears won the game, however Cutler broke his thumb that day, we were on a win streak!  If we only knew that was the end of our season! Anyway on Monday the 22nd we went for Caley's PTC and met with Mr.Brade, Ms.Spetter, Mr.Woltman & Mr. Durkin.  I remember telling Mr. Durkin that I didn't think that Steve & I would ever be together again.  We talked about it with Caley to make sure that she knew it was not her fault, she knew that, just checking though!  I saw Dr Rieger on the 22nd to talk about my problem which I had happen again on Monday but not on Tuesday.  I was still very sad about Steve & I had a real hard time even talking to Dr.R about it.  He was really concerned about my emotional issues not so much the blood probelm.  I said I was seeing my therapist twice a week as long as the psychiatrist next week.  I saw Dr.M on the 23rd and my count was 84K and got to lower the prednisone to 10 & 5 every other day.  She also wanted to do two more rounds of Rituxin and I was like OK I guess.  We went to the circus that night and it rocked!!!  Thanksgiving came and went with no major issues, other then fighting kids!!  On Friday the 24th I sent Steve & email telling him about how much I love him and need him in my life and that I was ready to let him go as my boyfriend but not as a friend.  I told him that I needed him in my life becasue he had become my best friend and was there this whole horrible year.  He got out of the hospital on the 23rd.  I didnt do much shopping that day becasue I just wasn't feeling it.  On the 26th I invited Steve to come over and hang out, I thought I could handle just being his friend but all I wanted to do was grab him and hug him and kiss him until he said everything was going to be OK.  I have to mention also that I started going back to church with Erin to bible study on Wednesday nights and going to church on Sunday everyweek since my October trip to the hospital.  I had been praying like crazy telling God that I wanted him to make Steve come back to me.  That night when I had Steve over I had went up to go to the bathroom and I prayed to God saying I am going to try and kiss him unless you make me feel like I shouldn't.  I went back downstairs and I grabbed him and he said no do not kiss me.  So I guess that was my sign to not do it.  I was resigned to the fact that we were not meant to be together and I need to get used to being just his friend.  On the 27th we go over to Dennis & Erins for Molly's birthday, the bears are playing the reaiders with Caleb Hanie as the quarterback!!!  Oh boy are we in trouble!  But we won!!!  That night Steve called and said he wanted to hang out again and I was like OK.  On the phone he said I love you, I was like wow that came out of no where!  He gets here and I am outside and he says I have a surprise for you and he walks up and grabs me and kisses me!!!  I melted!!!  I was so happy!!  I know it doesnt fix any of our problems and still today they are not fixed but i dont really care!!  The 28th was the time of the month again and it was OK nothing bad at all.  I was set to have more Rituxin on the 30th but Dr.M emailed me and said that we were not going to do it.  It was a wild ride this month thats for sure!!

October 2011

October 1st I woke up not feeling real great since I over indulged the night before at April & Joe's wedding, I actually got into bed all dressed up!!  But I pressed on and got ready to go, I went and picked Caley up from Lori's after she did both or our hair, we were off to see Elise get married to Rudy.  I cried so much it was such a great ceremony.  Steve & I went to the reception and I was not feeling real great.  They had the coolest thing that I had ever seen, a candy table!!  So we snacked on chocolate covered pretzels while waiting for dinner.  We had a good time but left a bit early because I was not feeling good.  I saw Dr. M on the 5th and my count was 23K, again we were doing nothing but waiting and hoping that it doesn't fall any lower.  On the 8th I went to the dentist for a toothache I had all week.  I had asked Dr.M if it would be OK to have dental work done and she said cleaning was fine but nothing extreme.  He just looked at it and didn't do anything to it, just said to schedule an appointment to fill the one tooth and we will look at the other one. Which is a tooth I cracked over a year ago.  On the 10th  Steve started his new job at the landscaping company.  That night I had a melt down again and totally lost my mind again!  Colleen took me to Loyola and they sent me to Glen Oaks Hospital in Glen Ellyn.  It was a very scary experience and I never want to go back there again.  My count was checked at Loyola before I left and it was 35K.  At that hospital the doctors were not concerned about my medical condition at all, strictly focused on the mental.  I can't blame them that is what they do.  I met some nice people and some really crazy people while I was there.  I wanted to go home so bad it hurt! The NLCS and ALCS games were on that week so at night when no one was watching the TV I put baseball on.  The one girl thought that since there were no guys in the room at the time that no one was watching the game!!  Oh well, thanks Steve for the love of baseball I have today!!!  The doctor there wanted to start me on a medicine called Celexa and I asked if they had checked to see if it would lower my count, because I had already talked with Dr.M about this and she said to make sure of that before I start anything.  SO I told the nurse that I wasn't going to take it unless they could tell me it was safe, she said OK I will tell the doctor you refused it!  I was like wait a minute don't try and keep me here any longer by saying that I'm refusing, I just want to make sure it's safe.  SO that night I saw the doctor and he looked it up and it said there could be a bleeding risk if taking that medicine!!!  Really so you want me to take it when I am in a hospital that is not giving me any MEDICAL attention?  He agreed and started me on Buprion, wellbutrin.  I got to leave the hospital on Friday the 14th!!  I was so happy to be out of that place and never look back!  I will never forget it for the rest of my life, which I plan to live for a long time now!!  I saw Dr.Egan on the 20th and he increased the dose of the Buprion to 150mg daily.  I started seeing my therapist twice a week at this point. On the 21st we went to the Halloween Hop at Pleasantdale for the last time since next year she will be in middle school. I had a great time hanging out with the fortune tellers!!  And Caley, David, Nina & Eddie went to the cake walk and won lots of goodies!!  On the 26th I had the absolute worst period of my life.  I was terrified something bad was going to happen to me because I was bleeding so much.  I called Dr.M and she had me go in the next day to have a count done it was a big whapping 12K!  They called me and told me I had to start on 40mg daily of prednisone and if the bleeding got worse I was to go to the ER.  I saw Dr.M on the 28th and my count was up to 14K so she said that she was going to look into what the next option would be, because I was against spleenectemy.  On Halloween on the way to see Dr.M I was on the phone with Steve and he was very emotional.  Not quite sure what his deal was that day but I kind of thought he was being ridicule's.  I saw Dr.M and my count had come up to 35K so we are lowering the prednisone to 20mg a day and waiting to see what happens.  Mom & I picked up David & Lola and headed to Pleasantdale for what would be the last Halloween parade that we would be going to.  I was holding Lola in my jacket because it was cold out.  The BFD came over and told me that we could not have the dog at school.  I was like sure like we are going to leave now.  The parade was over and I took mom, Dave & Lola home.  I went back and chatted with Jolene until the kids came out.  We got home and Caley wanted to go down to NinasCaley this year, but it was better this way because I could not walk that much any way.  I came home and waited for Steve to get here, he had been working at McCormick place today.  I called him at 4:40 when he still wasn't here to see what was going on and he said the traffic was bad and he would be here as soon as he could.  At this time I was sitting at home by myself because mom even after having a fight with David took him over to his cousins house.  At 5:45 Dennis called and said that they were on there way over and I was like really you are?  I had no clue they were coming over, but I was so happy that they were.  I called Pat to see when they would be back or if I should come get Caley and she said they were on there way back.  I then called Steve to see where he was and he said he was at home!  I lost it!  I look back at it now and realize it was so stupid to get so mad about this, but the steroids messed with my head so bad that I couldn't be rational.  I told him to go f himself and not bother coming over.  That was the beginning of a very terrible week for me.  I also have to mention that the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series.

September 2011

I realize on the 1st that I would have been married for ten years at this point and I was so glad that that didn't happen!!  I was able to stop one of my medications that I needed to take to help with the prednisone.  On the 7th I saw Dr.M and my count was 23K it was also curriculum night and time to meet Caley's new teacher Mr.Brade.  There are some new curriculum changes this year so this time it was way different then it had ever been any of the other years.  A few things i forgot to mention that happened over the summer.  First, Caley was adventuring out a lot on her own going for walks looking for someone to play with and she found Nina!  They quickly became best friends and spent lots of time together!  Also, Steve started working for Colleen as a greeter at the airport and he was helping coach David's football team.  That Friday the 9th was the welcome back event for school at the roller rank and I took Caley and Nina and David.  They had a great time and I spent time chatting with Jolene and Missy.  On September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the tragedy in New York, Mom, Dad, Steve & I went to DA BEARS home opener against the Falcons.  It was really warm out that day and I was not prepared for it.  I wore pants and had on a black hat to block the sun.  I overheated pretty quickly, at half time I was just about done being there in the heat.  So Steve & I went to find first aid.  The person at fan services said to find the paramedics in the aisles.  We found them and they put me on this furniture dolly chair thing and I was real scared.  When I was diagnosed with ITP all they kept telling me was don't fall down.  SO you can imagine how nervous I am being 345 pounds now at my biggest, and these two guys are wheeling me fast down thru a crowd.  They kept telling me it was OK that they were fire fighters and they could handle it.  We got to a set of steps and I was like oh no I am getting up you are not going to take me down the stairs like this.  So we get to first aid and I tell them all my medications and about my ITP and she is like why are you wearing a black hat?  I don't know I didn't think about it.  They take my blood pressure and its high like it has been and then my blood sugar and its fine.  So she says well how do you feel?  I said not bad I just needed to cool off.  SO we hung out there for the whole third quarter, oh and the bears were kicking ass!!  Then we walked back, well part of the way anyway.  I decide I wanted to stay where we were because it was closer to the exit then where are seats are.  Steve went and got mom and dad, the game was over we won!!!  The next day was my first major mental break down.  I had a fight with Steve because I asked him not to talk to JJ but he did anyway and a whole bunch of other bs!  I lost my mind and banged my head pretty hard.  I went to the ER my count was 47K and they did a CT of my head and it was fine, I went home.  On the 13th I had my annual female exam and everything there turned out fine, thank God like I needed any more problems!  On the 22nd I saw Dr. Egan and he upped the medicine he gave me to 3 times a day, at this point I wasn't taking it all the time because it made me real sleepy.  On the 24th I went to the demo without Steve because he didn't want to go.  The orange crush lost and were not the champions, the black team was.  However the chicks demo, in honor of breast cancer, was awesome!!!  They did a great job!!  On the 30th I had my follow up with Dr. Klamut and he said that my stomach should get better soon.  That night my friend April from grade school got married, Steve & I were fighting on they way there so I decided to get real drunk.  Maybe not the best idea but i had a great time and there was no problems because of this.

August 2011

I saw Dr. M on the 5th and my count was 23K we decided that since I'm not having any bleeding problems right now that we are just not going to do anything to treat at all.  At this time summer is starting to wrap up and we are thinking about school.  We got this wonderful letter in the mail from the Superintendent sating that we needed to fill out this ridiculous thing called a student residency affidavit.  I will see if I can scan it and put it on here so you all can see how out of hand this thing is.  It also said that I needed to provide documentation that proves that we do indeed live here with my parents.  Not only that but my dad and I had to go in for a "sit down" with Dr. Friedisdorf, the superintendent.  I went with Colleen & Steve to gather the documents we had to take Colleen to the DMV so she could change her address since she moved to Brookfield this month and she would need documents to register David.  After that we went to the courthouse to pick up birth certificates and we were off.  I had to copy the information pertaining to Caley in my divorce decree and also we needed the tax bill and two things with my name and address on it.  SO at our "sit down" with BFD we will call him for short, first of all we got there about 5 minutes early and his secretary was not even there yet.  SO he lets us in himself and is all flustered and doesn't know where he should sit down with us.  Um I called and scheduled this about two weeks ago, you are the one requiring me to do this, why so unprepared? Anyway, we sit down in this office at a table that he had to clear off so we could use it and he had to bring in another chair for my dad.  I hand him the documents he briefly glances at them and says thank you for coming in I'm sure this is all fine.  He reaches his hand out to shake mine and I'm like really all that trouble and your not even going to look at it? My dad is not satisfied and has to give him a piece of his mind. He told him that he felt that he was profiling me and the other 8 families that had to fill this out.  Just for those of you that don't know we live in a good district where money is not a problem for the school and there are at least 400 families if not closer to 500 in the district.  SO you could say that my dad had to be on to something since they only choose 8 out of 400.  I mean there has to be more families then that in the district that have different living situations then whats normal.  Anyway we were getting ready to go after Dad gave the BFD a bit of his mind, and I was like um are you going to copy that stuff because you can't keep it.  And he was like oh yeah and by this time his secretary had shown up so he called her to come and take it and copy it.  And we left, I was mad at the process but didn't really care because I know that I was not doing anything wrong.  Later that day I went to the Burr Ridge Lab and had my blood taken it was 30K.  On the 17th I went to the school board meeting and told them how I felt about what they had done to me and the other 8 families was not right.  At that meeting they discussed the residency requirements and what things they should do in the future.  Our school board is so messed up that they could not come up with an idea that they could all agree on so the decision was to not do anything about it and keep it the same.  SO that means I will have to do this all again next year.  On the 18th Steve's grandma passed away she was 88 years old.  I don't get a long real well with his parents so I am not looking forward to spending a lot of time with them.  The 19th was the wake and we were there for 8 hours.  And you would never guess who showed up but none other then Brian Voyles, which I forgot to mention in July that he went missing for three days and we were about to start a search party for him and then his wife found him in a bar.  Steve was glad to see Brian and we heard some of his side of the story.  The 30th was the funeral and it was a real gloomy day.  When we left the church it started raining and didn't stop.  I have to mention that we were riding with Steve's parents and it was complete silence the whole ride.  At the cemetery it was pouring down rain and we were waiting for them to put her in the mausoleum, not even going to try and spell the correct!!  After getting poured on lightning was striking so we got in the car and waited.  We got to the restaurant and there was no power.  It was actually really sweet to have lunch by candlelight.  However there was no light in the bathroom when we got there since they didn't put a candle in there, so that was fun!!  Caley went with Dennis & Erin to the demo and the Orange Crush won the trophy!!  Peters first trophy since who knows when!  He was real happy!  The 25th was the first day of school for Caley

July 2011

On the 2nd of July I had yet another trip to the ER because my stomach was killing me.  I also had a real bad ear ache.  They did a ct of my abdomen again and everything was fine.  I think my count was 38K then and I was doing 5 & 0 every other day of the prednisone.  The doctor gave me a script for ear drops and we were on our way.  We stopped at Walgreens on the way home since it is a holiday weekend I figured we should just get it right away.  I asked the girl how much it would be and she said the ear drops were $130.00!!  I was like why are they not covered? She said it was coming up that I am not covered at all for anything.  Great now I have something else to deal with!   On Sunday Pleasantdale did there fireworks and we decide to watch them at the splashpad park for a different view.  I saw Melissa Lantro there who I haven't seen since Nicks wake in October of 09.  We chatted a bit but I needed to sit down so I said by and call me sometime and that was that.  I was feeling a bit better come Monday so we went with everyone up to Pell Lake. Steve, Caley, Colleen, David, Mom, Dad, Matt, Lola & I all went up to see the fireworks on the lake.Lola is Colleen & Davids Chihuahua puppy, she was born on May 6th!  She was so cute playing in the sand but she did not want to swim even though David made her!  She has become a major part of this family now! At this point I was taking the prednisone 2.5 & 0 every other day.  On Tuesday the 5th Mom, Steve & I went back to public aid to straiten out the problem with my health insurance. My caseworker said oh sorry I just put you back on today.  OK but I asked is everything going to be covered since I was in the ER on Saturday and she said yes.  On the 6th I saw Dr. M and my count was 34K, I had written in my book that I had a test at the hospital that morning but I don't know what it was.  That may have been the gall bladder test and I mixed it up with something else!  On the 8th I went to the Rhuemotologist and she said she was happy with the progress that I was making with the Physical Therapy and that she thinks I'm doing well and don't need to work with her.  On the 11th I took my last dose of prednisone, I thought forever but I was wrong!!  On the 14th I saw Dr. Klamut at the main building and that was when they officially declared my stomach to be inflamed from the steroids.  He gave me some samples of aciphex since my protonix was not covered and it was too expensive to keep buying but I couldn't afford to be on nothing.   At this time I am totally off steroids and the joint pain has begun, its not so bad since I am doing PT but I have also been taking advil again all the time.  I go back to see Dr. M on the 5th of August.

June 2011

On the first of June I had my first accident since having ITP.  It wasn't a big deal really. Steve was starting the grill and wanted me to sit by him so I put the chair on the bottom of the deck by him and went to sit down, but my chair slid back and over the edge of the deck.  I crashed and hit my head on the ground, I did not black out and I was not bleeding, but since this was the first time anything like this happened I figured I better call my doctor.  I talked to the on call doctor and she said that I should go in and have a CT on my head done to make sure there was no internal bleeding.  I did not want to spend the whole night in the ER so we went to the new Burr Ridge immediate care in hopes they could help us.  Since I just had my count checked yesterday they said OK we will do your CT here.  However they had to call there tech to come in so we waited about an hour and a half.  I was a bit nervous it was my first time going in head first, but the CT is open so its not so bad.  They ran the test and it was fine so we went home.  Since we had the big snowstorm in February we had two extra days of school and the last day was moved to the 6th.  I had made Caley's 6 month dentist appointment for that day thinking that there would be no school.  I picked Caley up early and headed out to Homer for her dentist appointment.  Caley's teeth are all good!  That afternoon I saw Dr.M and my count was 37K so again I got to lower the prednisone to 10 & 2.5 every other day.  The weather wasn't all that great so even though the pool was open we hadn't been swimming yet.  On the 8th, Caley's 9th Birthday, I went and had this gallbladder scan done because I was having a lot of stomach pain.  It was a long test where you have to lay still they inject you with radioactive dye and then they put this scanner on you and you have to wait until your gall bladder lights up on the screen.  Then they have you drink this stuff that's like cream and then they watch what happens.  I guess it was OK.  On the 10th I saw Dr.Klamut the GI Dr for the first time in the Burr Ridge office, he ordered and EGD for me, which is the down the throat test to look in the stomach.  I called to schedule that appointment and the soonest they could get me in was the 16th.  On the 11th I had Caley's party at woods pool, the weather was still really cool so I moved the time of the party to daytime in hopes it would work out better. It went OK, the kids all swam and had a great time.  However it was a lesson learned and in her 9 years of life we had one too many outside birthday parties that the weather didn't cooperate.  Those of you that know me well enough can remember Caley's first birthday and how awful the weather was that day!!!  Anyway it worked out OK but this year we will do something different, Caley is already planning it!  On Monday the 13th I went to the ER with horrible stomach pains.  They started by doing an ultra sound of my appendix and it was fine.  So then I had to drink that barium stuff and have a CT of my entire abdomen done, and that was all fine.  They had given me something for pain and decided to admit me.  My count was 31K and I was doing 10 & 0 prednisone every other day.  I stayed in the hospital for three days on the 14th they decided to do my EGD.  I was really nervous about it as well.  I got brought down to the room where they do it and they are giving me all the instructions.  Lay on your side and try to relax.  My IV was in my left arm kinda in the crook of my elbow so I couldn't bend that arm.  They decided to leave the arm rail down so I could keep my arm strait.  The Dr sprayed some bad tasting stuff in my mouth and said that this is to numb my throat.  Then they attached some stuff to my IV and that is all I remember.  They woke me up and said OK we are going to take you to your room now. I have to mention that I didn't have anything to eat on Monday before going to the ER and then they would not let me eat.  Once I got upstairs I asked for food even though I was told I couldn't eat and I got a turkey sandwich.  In the morning all I was able to have after my test was liquids.  That night I had Steve bring me a sandwich because I was starving!!  My stomach was still hurting a lot and they were giving me pain medicine for it.  On Wednesday i got to go home, which was good because I had my first Physical Therapy appointment that afternoon at Burr Ridge.  I met Viki my PT and she was awesome, we decided to do 6 weeks 2x a week.  Also I forgot to mention before the EGD my count was 27K so they gave me platelets before hand.  Which was the first and only time for me so far.  My count was still at 27K when i left that day.  I saw Dr.M on Monday the 20th and my count was 48K we lowered the prednisoneEGD came back that my stomach was swollen from all the months of steroids, I was put on this medication that helped it feel better.  I was scheduled for PT on the 21st but I felt too lousy to go.  On the 22nd mom & I went down to the public aid office because I had gotten a notice saying that my coverage was being canceled, I saw my case worker and she said it was going to be fine.  I had PT on the 24th and it felt real good, still hard to move around but its getting a bit better.  On the 27th I saw Dr. Reiger and had my blood drawn there in the Burr Ridge office, finally!!  The count that day was 32K. On the 28th it was an eventful day!  Steve took Caley downtown for her birthday gift a day at the taste a long with her first Cubs game!  It also happens to be the day that Caley's cousin Delaney was born not to mention her other cousin Samantha's 20th Birthday and my parents 36th anniversary.  I had PT and went to the pool for a bit.  The summer was off to a cool start but had finally started to warm up a bit!

May 2011

May started with the school year coming to end very soon we were ready to think about summer.  Since I was sick in February I was unable to get us a sponsor for our coed softball team so this would be the first summer not playing Willowbrook softball but that was OK because it is also the first year that Caley will be playing in BRW Softball league!  Caley was on the Heat that was coached by Brian Bailey, the team was made up with mostly Pleasantdale girls ranging in grades 2-4 since it is the 8 and under league and Caley did not turn 9 until June.  There were two girls from Gower on the team as well.  It was so much fun to watch them learn about softball and relieve a bit of my youth with them, even though I was just watching.  I was still having a hard time moving around but I had been feeling OK, still not sure where I was at with prednisone but on the 11th my count was at 38K.  That night we went to Midway Airport for the Honor Flight that was sponsored by LT.  I had to have mom push me in the wheel chair again because I still could not walk much and didn't know how far of a walk it would be and if there would be somewhere to sit. It was so amazing to see all the people there, mostly all the kids from the local junior highs.  Unfortunately our school did not participate in this fundraiser.  The high school band and the choirs were there to cheer on the veterans as they came home from there day in DC.  As they came down I made myself stand with everyone else to cheer on these heros.  It was a great experience, thank you Gina for sharing it with us!!  On the 16th I saw Dr.M and my count was 44K and my prednisone was lowered to 10 & 7.5mg every other day, so I guess I had been on 20mg a day before this.  The 17th was Caleys first softball game and it was HOT!!!  Who would have thought it would have been 90 in the middle of May.  On the 18th Caleys brownie troop had there flying up ceremony, it was a little sad since the leaders that had been with them since kindergarten were handing the troop over to three other moms.  The old leaders made a dvd for the girls of pictures from the last four years of scouts.  It was so cute and it was set to girls just wanna have fun so Caley played it over and over again.  On the 21st it was the first demo of the year and Caley had a game that morning at 9am not to mention it was picture day so we had to be there at 8!!  We had a great game and the demo was fun as well, however Uncle Johnnys team lost in the first round and that was not fun.  On the 23rd I saw Dr.M again and my count was still at 44K so I went down on the prednisone to 10 & 5mg every other day.  On the 25th we went on the 3rd grade field trip with Pleasantdale and it was a gloomy rainy morning.  We got a late start leaving because there were not enough buses.  Traffic was terrible and it was taking us forever to get there.  The teacher got a phone call and then stood up to tell us that we would not be going to the Sears(Willis) Tower instead we were going strait to the Wendella Boat ride.  The boat ride was a lot of fun and actually very educational.  I learned things about the city that I never knew before.  I never knew that the white flag with the blue strips and the red stars was the Chicago flag.  It was a great time and I was glad that we went even though the weather was not all that great.  Softball was going well and the weather was weird because the hot weather left and we had cool temperatures.  On the 31st I had my count checked and it was 59K!