Laughter is the best medicine!

As many of you now know, a big part of my Amyloid adventure has been to find humor in the little things along the way. I can't thank you enough for all the funny jokes, stories and you tube clips that are being sent  but sometimes, I don't have to look very far...
One of the "upsides" to this chemo treatment has been that we are now living in an apartment (11th floor high rise!) right in the middle of the city. Yup, three blocks to Fenway in one direction and 2 blocks to Copley Square in the other (I hear they have a lot of shoes there!!) Oh yeah...and the hospital is less than a mile away. If you love Boston, which we do, then this is the place to be. BU Medical Center requires us to live within a 10 minute drive of the hospital for this treatment (for lots of reasons which I will go into another time). We found a very nice, safe short term corporate rental with CVS, Whole Foods, and Blockbuster Video at the street level. It doesn't get more convenient than that! This place came highly recommended by lots of other patients who have made this their home during treatment because it is less than a mile down Mass Ave to the hospital, and it really offers all the conveniences that you will need while you are here. Of course finding parking in the city...is a whole different ball game.
After my first day of treatment, Auntie Del and I went on a search for a parking garage within the vicinity of our apartment. (They have parking at the place, but it is grossly overpriced!) We found a garage close by that offers "overnight" parking at a reduced rate and since we will be at the hospital all day-and just about everyday, we decided this was our best option. In after 4pm, out by 9:30am.  Except that it was now 2 pm and we had 2 hours before they would let us in the garage. We decided to park at a meter , feed it quarters and move the car in at 4 pm ...no problem, right?
We went to the apartment and I promptly fell asleep for several hours leaving Del to handle everything.(Isn't that what an "entourage" does anyway ??!) Big mistake! Del decides to go for a walk, completely forgetting about the car. On her way back (now 6:30pm) she walks right by the car and realizes her mistake as a bright orange $25 ticket  now accessorizes her car. It is then she also realizes that she doesn't have the keys. She runs up to the 11th floor, grabs the keys, runs back down and begins to move the car. She gets to the entrance to the garage... only to discover that she doesn't have the monthly pass to get into the garage...its back in the apartment! Now she has to go back to the street, find a meter, feed it a quarter, run back up11 floors to the apartment....only to remember that she had put the monthly pass on her visor in the car for safe keeping. Of course she high-tailed it back downstairs to move the car before  the meter ran out again. And who has chemo brain here??? By the way, my nap was fabulous...never heard a thing:) When I woke up from my nap and see Del standing in the apartment with beads of sweat running down her face and she told me her escapades... I was hysterical laughing. I'm still trying to convince Del that this was actually a good thing because of that. She recovered enough to make a fabulous Shrimp with Angel Hair dinner for the two of us...
distractions are good. Oh yeah...and the Celtics won too!

Little did i realize that having a non-city girl as part of my "entourage" would bring me and you such comic relief...
Some of you may remember (if you have read previous blogs) that my friend Karen drove to BU one day and while we had a wonderful time in the city, the drive to get home was more painful than the treatment itself. I thought I was just going to die when Karen rolled down her window to ask the very irate man in a truck if she could pull out in front of him...and Karen was shocked when he said NO. And I thought I was in trouble then!! If you have ever driven in this city, you know that Boston drivers and pedestrians have their own language...and it has everything to do with attitude and nothing to do with you. They are notorious for aggressive driving and jay walking. Out of state visitors are just mucking things up. Did I mention that Del is from CT??!
Needless to say, the last few days have been hair-raising for her...and for me!  Treatment-related mortality has nothing on being a passenger in the car with Del in the city! Within hours of arriving here and having to drive up and down Mass Ave several times, I was pretty sure that Del would be eating her way through my stash of Ativan in no time. I tried to explain to her on the first day, (as I did with Karen), that you don't stop and ask permission to change lanes...you just GO. She who hesitates...gets hit. Or in her case, they lean on the horn and then proceed to drive around you...showing their true feelings via their left hand! We are now on day 4 and with 8 trips to the hospital under her belt, I am proud to say that she has come a long way!  Now they are beeping at her because she's cutting them off ...and shes getting really good with her left hand!
I'm still thinking about walking...

More tomorrow on Stem Cell Harvest Results!!!
Love,
Cheryl