Highways and Hospitals

Fiona and I had our first non chemo doctor's appointment today. I picked her up from school and started our usual trip and I almost forgot to put Sasha up. Sasha is the name for our Garmin GPS device. Buttercup named it after listening to her for about 2800 miles. Anyway, I realized that I was finally pretty comfortable driving down the interconnecting highways to Texas Children's Hospital. I thought it was quite the trip to drive from our house to Doernbecher's. It was really just hopping onto I-5 for about 5 miles and then driving up Pill Hill. Now, I start going south on HWY 249 and ignore Sasha's advice to stay on it, even when it turns into a regular road with a ton of stoplights. Instead I turn to go east on Sam Houston Tollway. I love toll roads! Pay a buck and speed past the people on what they call the feeder road, that runs parallel to the freeway and has tons of lights on it. Once again, I scoff at the suggestion to go south on I-45 because that is just a parking lot waiting to happen. I do get irritated that Sasha tacks more time on my trip meter because I ignore her suggestion. She doesn't take real time traffic into account. Instead, I turn onto another lovely toll road, Hardy Toll Road, which most of the time is almost entirely deserted. I have no idea why people don't take advantage of this road. I keep left to get onto I-610 west and head over to HWY 59 south. There is a bit of slow down in traffic, always, near the Minute Maid park. I know you have heard of this place, it used to be called Enron.... Then I get onto TX-288 south and wait to get off the freeways. At this point, I could just follow the signs to Texas Medical Center. The trip, on a good day, takes about 45 minutes. One time it took over 90 minutes, that was when I took Sasha's advice and tried to come home on I-45.

Texas Medical Center is truly amazing. According to it's website, there are over 40 institutions in this area. I tried to write a few down while I was going past. MD Anderson takes up several different areas, there are several medical schools, as well as nursing schools. There is Texas Children's, Shriner for kids, Children's Memorial Hermanns, etc. It's really impossible to describe accurately. Suffice it to say, this place could be it's own city.

Fiona had a hard time realizing how much quicker this trip would be. It only took us 3 and a half hours. She did a great time getting poked in the arm. We discussed her new roadmap, how often she would have certain tests. Apparently things like scans and x-rays are up to the provider. She will be having an Echo for her heart every year. That's become one of the main long term side effects. I talked to the doctor quite a bit about that, seeing that I took one of those drugs, quite a bit, for my chemo. Apparently there is nothing you can do to be proactive, not even some good cardio on a regular basis. Of course, that doesn't hurt to keep your heart more healthy. Thank heavens for my Zumba morning.