Fall is Here! Kinda!

Monday, September 22nd:

HAPPY FALL!

Today is officially the first day of Fall, but it doesn't feel like it and it won't for a while.

After Theo and Nurse Stephanie headed off to school, I went to the local college to donate blood. I usually drink a protein shake in the morning, but today I decided to drink one that had some coffee in it. I was SOOOO jittery! I don't drink a lot of caffeine, so when I do it really affects me. I got to the donation place but they wouldn't let me donate because my heart rate was too high! I've never had that happen before! It's fine. I'll try again in a few weeks.

Josh and I were gifted these beautiful (and sharp) Japanese Yaxell knives. They are awesome!

They aren't as cool as the ones I bought Josh when I was in Japan, but they are pretty close!

Alyx from Making Home came over today to do some laser measurements for our kitchen renovation. I'm excited for her to get started!

Tuesday, September 23rd:

For my birthday Josh bought us tickets to see the Super Carlin Brothers in Chicago. They have a YouTube channel that covers Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, but mostly Harry Potter. I actually ran into them at Star Wars Celebration in Japan and I asked them if they were ever going to come to Chicago. They told me that they haven't announced it yet, BUT they had plans to go there in September! 

[Ben, Me, and J]

When I told Josh they were going on tour he bought us tickets. Luckily, Ms. Jess was able to watch Theo (she's been so busy with nursing school). The show was at the City Winery Chicago, so Josh and I started with dinner there and then we headed into the show. 

[Josh had to take an important call from work during dinner]

The show was a lot of fun! First they did a trivia challenge, J vs Ben, and then they did a deep dive into one of the chapters from Order of the Phoenix. The crowed was super excited and it was fun to see my fellow HP nerds 😁

Wednesday, September 24th:

Theo had an early out at school and I spend most of the morning (almost 3 hours) getting new tires put on the van. And then next week we get to take it to a repair shop so they can fix the damage from when the big rig hit us.

That night I went to an Open House at the the Village Hall about a Data Center that is going to be built just north of town. I don't know that much about these data centers besides hearing that they are quite a few of them being built in Illinois due to tax incentives.

There were a few representatives from Equinix, a representative from ComEd, members of the Village Board, and a few others who were there to answer our questions. There was a big turnout so they had to bring in more chairs. The meeting went pretty well. After a short presentation, the residents were allowed to ask questions. Mostly people were concerned about water (they don't use water to cool, they use fans), noise (it will be less than the sound of a car driving by), our electrical bills (they are not going to go up because of the Data Center), environmental impacts (minimal), property taxes and worth, traffic, construction, and AI. There were a few angry people, but most people were respectful. 

Construction starts in November.

Thursday, September 25th:

Since it's Fall I've been going weekly to get my allergy shots. After the harvest is over I should be able to go every three weeks! 

Friday, September 26th:

A guy from Access Elevator came over to give us a quote for another ceiling lift for Theo. We talked about a few different options, he took some measurements, and he should be sending me the quotes next week.

After he left I went to Bronkberry Farms so check out their mums. Oh my goodness! They had so many and they are GORGEOUS!

Even though it's still in the 80s during the day, my petunias decided to go to sleep for the winter. I think it's the 50's at night that they aren't fans of. I sent Josh this photo and asked him to swing by and pick up some fall plants for us.

Look how fluffy they are! I love them!

Weekend:

We went to the Naperville Farmers Market Fall Fest and bought way too much delicious food!

[Best toast I've ever had!]

I made appointments for Josh to get his flu shot and Theo to get his COVID and flu shot (I got my flu shot a couple of weeks ago). When we got to Walgreens, they told us that Josh and I could both get our COVID shots too since the Governor signed an executive order stating that anyone over 18 can get it if they want it. YAY! So, I and I got our COVID shots too! 

Theo was very brave and even though he was upset he wasn't mad for long.

Since Neuromodulation changed the settings on Theo's VNS, he's been having shorter seizures. He's still having about 5-8 a day, but they aren't as intense or as long as before. So that's good news!

Three Drs Appointments and a Hit-and-Run

Monday, September 15th:

The plants here are very confused. My flowers still think it's summer, the maple trees think it's fall, and the grass thinks it's winter. I don't blame them. Our weather has been crazy and it's been in the 90s all week 🤷‍♀️

After school Theo had PT and OT with Ms Becca and Ms Laura. He's usually so excited to see them, but today he was acting very suspicious. 

Tuesday, September 16th:

As I was sending Theo and Nurse Stephanie off to school I was listening in on the Windsor Hills Master HOA Board meeting. Things have been a little tense at Windsor Hills lately and the owners have been lashing out at each other on social media. I think it's due to board elections coming up and the fact that income has been down this year across the board. Owners are struggling to get renters and quite a few owners are selling their properties. There are A LOT of short term vacation rentals in Orlando right now. And people just don't have a lot of disposable income to spend on a big trip to Disney. I get it. That all being said, I think this election is going to be very contentious.

Theo and his class went on a field trip to Bronkberry Farms. Nurse Stephanie said that Theo had a great time and the kids were able to do a scavenger hunt, go on a hay ride, and see a lot of animals! AND they brought me home some apple cider doughnuts! They were delicious 😋

[Chicken stickers]

That afternoon Theo had Sherman lessons with Ms Kaylin. It was such nice weather that they rode outside!

Wednesday, September 17th:

Theo had an appointment with his Epilepsy Specialist, Dr. Garcia Pierce, at 9:00 AM at Lurie Children's in Chicago. Rush hour is no joke here. We planned on leaving the house around 7:00 AM, but when I checked the traffic at 6:30 AM and saw it was almost a two hour drive, we decided to leave right away.

Traffic was bad, but we arrived early for our appointment. Theo also had an appointment with Neuromodulation, Amy Tenet, at 10:30 AM, but we were able to see Dr. Garcia Pierce and Amy Tenet at the same time, which was perfect! We told them that Theo’s seizures are getting longer and with more jerks and he recently started having seizures that start in slow motion. I also told them about the one time over the summer that Theo got over heated and had a 4 minute seizure and we had to give him Valtoco. I also told them about the time that the AC on the bus broke during ESY and Theo got off the bus with cheeks flushed and he had a long seizure after that, but it was less than 4 minutes so we didn’t give him the Valtoco. Dr. Garcia Pierce said she would send a letter to the school stating that Theo must have AC on his bus.

 Amy Tenet changed Theo’s VNS settings to go off for 7 seconds every 20 seconds. She also increased the intensity of the therapy. At this time Dr Garcia Pierce doesn’t want to mess with Theo’s meds so we can give the VNS a chance to work. We did discuss the Keto diet, but kids usually get constipated while doing Keto and Theo already has issues with constipation. Dr. Garcia Pierce wants us to come in for an overnight EEG in the next few months. She also order some blood work, which Theo did before we left the hospital.

We will check back in with both Amy Tenet and Dr. Garcia Pierce in a month.

[Bandaid on his hand from bloodwork - he's so brave!]

After the appointments we went searching for the rumored family bathroom on the 11th floor. And we found it!

The bathroom is located in the Sky Lobby right next to the cafeteria. 

Inside the bathroom is a powered, height adjustable, adult size changing table!

I posted the location on Facebook and someone commented that they think there is another one on the 14th or 15th floor, so we'll have to hunt that one down next time we are there!

We then made the hour drive home from the hospital.

That afternoon we ventured out again. This time we went to see Dr. Jamie at Bite Size in Frankfort. 

They cleaned his teeth, did the flouride brush, and took x-rays. His 6 year molars are about to come in! Dr Jamie said everything looks great and there is very little buildup. We also noticed that Theo lost another tooth! That's 8 so far!

[Such a trooper]

[Looking to dada for help]

We took The 80 home since that is the fastest route even though there is SOOO much construction. As were were approaching some construction I started complaining about how people don't know how to zipper merge. They all try to get over early even though there are signs that tell you to wait until the merge point to merge. 

Anyways, we were zippering with traffic at a crawl when I noticed that the semi truck we were merging in front of was VERY close to us. Traffic was barely moving and we were almost done merging when we felt a bump and heard a loud scrape. Yep, he hit us. 

Of course, there was no where to pull over since there was construction everywhere. We went to the next exit and as we were about to exit we noticed that he was not following us! He kept going! So we chased after him and I got a picture of the license plate of the trailer. We then pulled up next to him and I waved at him. He looked at me and I mimed "You hit us! Pull over!" He just stared at me and then looked forward and kept driving. I then called 911 and they transferred me to Highway Patrol. I told them what happened and that the truck wouldn't stop. They said that we need to pull over so a police man could come out and write an accident report and that they do not want us to chase the truck. Ugh. They are right. People get shot during road rage incidents and it's not worth getting killed over.

So, we found a safe place to pull over and waited for the police man to arrive. While we were waiting I got a call from Ms. Jess! She just drove past us on the freeway and wanted to make sure we were okay! So sweet of her! She offered to chase down the truck, but I told her that he was long gone and not to worry about it. After about 30 minutes I received a call from Highway Patrol. They were stuck in traffic (go figure) and it would still take them a while to get to us. Josh told him what happened and he made a police report over the phone. He said he will try to track down the driver of the semi truck and in the meantime we should submit pictures and his report to our insurance agency. 

[Nice dent and scrapes]

Luckily, the van is still drivable, but we were told it could take five days to fix it! Do you know how much is cost to rent a wheelchair accessible van?! $180 a day! And insurance will only cover $30 per day. Good times.

After a super stressful day I still had a two hour work Zoom to attend that night. It went really well and it sounds like we may have more working coming up! YAY!

Thursday, September 18th:

After sending Theo and Nurse Stephanie off to school I headed to CMBS for a 90 minute lymphatic massage. I've been feeling really swollen lately and I hope a lymphatic drainage massage will help! Thanks to mom and dad for the gift card!

Theo had a great day at school. He went in the ball pit and Nurse Stephanie said he had a great time throwing the little balls and pool noodle pieces at everyone!

Theo also had a book review of Peter Rabbit:

Friday, September 19th:

I'm still trying to take care of my skin, so I've been getting facials or treatments every other month (or so). Today I got a Clear and Brilliant laser treatment. 

[Gotta numb for 30 minutes first]

Theo did another book review. He clearly was not a fan of Corduroy 🤣

We got some professional pictures from the horse show at The Legacy Ranch last weekend. They are so cute!

In other news:

The Angels now have the record for the longest Playoffs drought. Come on guys!

At least my Chargers are off to a great start!

And I bought a new old game: Kingdom Hearts!