We are back from our intermission. As promised, I kept from writing much of anything while Summer was home for 4 days. 4 days that seemed to take forever… Until you get here in Memphis and realize that we have to start all over again! Sucks.
By the time Summer has been home for a few days… She was getting around amazingly well. We had plenty of family and friends stop by to chat and catch-up. Brodahls came by and we played board games till nearly 11 PM Saturday night. Just like old times! Except, that normally, Summer would have abandoned us for friends on a Saturday night. I guess her lack of driving ability was a blessing for us!?!?!
Sunday we went to Sylvia and James house in Springfield for a Fathers Day BBQ combined with a birthday party for Aiden. Good times and lots of laughs. Angela, Summer and I made a late exit at 7PM and headed to Carbondale.
Our “onboarding” at St. Jude was set for Monday evening… So we had time to spare if we got down to Carbondale Sunday night. This gave Summer time to see Nate… And the other Nate (Z) and of course… Geno! We dropped her off and headed to the Holiday Inn. I will be completely honest in saying I wish that dropping her off at her apartment meant that everything was normal and we were done with this. Knowing that we would be back in the morning to head to Memphis seemed extra-sucky after a bit of normalcy.
This morning we came back to the apartment and tried to remove items from the room and tidy it up in case the lease was released. I am not pushing this right now. Talking to doctors tomorrow will tell us a lot about what to expect. If there is a real chance she can go back to school this winter, I think we should keep the lease. But, this is all speculation right now. The generosity of the GoFundMe takes a lot of stress off this (Thank you people!). Pray she can go back to school after winter break.
We got a great little insurance information “inquiry” from the Helicopter Ambulance folks, it was sent to Summer’s address. It is literally a form that say “Hey, we are waiting for payment from the hospital, but in the meantime, send us your insurance information so we can start billing them first”. This is the bill that scares the living Hell out of me. We will mess with this later and expect that nothing will be known on these kinds of bills for weeks or months. 
The drive from Carbondale to Memphis is kinda boring… So I had to find a few “Mounds” to check out. Oh, and why not stop at Lambert’s and get some Thrown rolls? Good times. I don’t know if I was a much bigger eater the last time we went to Lambert’s… Because today I felt soooo bloated from my frog legs and white beans that we didn’t even have dinner! Wow!
The mound scene along the Mississippi is not that great. Most have probably been plowed under by farmers over the last 300 years. I have a review coming up for one of the stops, I will share that with anyone who wants to read them.
St. Jude
You aren’t here to read about Indian mounds… You want to hear about St. Jude.
Our reservation time for registration was set for 7 PM. We tried to keep it close but still arrived around 6:30. Everyone was nice. We went through a few checkpoints… Registered with a personable anime-loving attendant, Heather, who had to get information from all three of us. Summer was then checked over by a nurse and had a COVID test. All was fine. We were then directed to Tri-Delta House. TriD is a hotel-like buildin in the St. Jude campus that reminds me of an extended stay hotel. 2 queen beds and a pull-out couch in another room. (Where I will probably sleep). It’s not bad.
But this is not our ultimate destination. Ronald McDonald House is where we will eventually end up. They are waiting for an opening and we will move from TriD. That means we are living out of suitcases for a few days until we can get a permanent room.
I took a call from Uncle Steve today about visiting… I told him to “stay in a holding pattern”. We will know a lot more about Summer’s schedule and what we CAN and CANT do during her treatments. I think they limit contact with patients because many of these kids that we will be around are immune-compromised. We will find out the rules and be sure to share them with everyone. Summer was having a small freak out when she was reading the rules of the house for Ronald McDonald. It reads like prison. We are hoping its a COVID regulation that has not been updated. WE SHALL SEE!
Plan as of right now for staying in Memphis.
Angela, 2 weeks to start. I will come home this weekend and return the following weekend, which puts me here for week 3. By then, a lot of questions should be answered about routine and guests.
This week will be a lot of testing and looking at what CARLE has already done. St. Jude will want to have new MRI’s and a spinal tap (Thursday) all done over the next few days.
Dr. info: Dr. Amar Gajjar
https://www.stjude.org/directory/g/amar-gajjar.html
Thanks again for following along and keeping Summer in your prayers. More are needed!
Hi, Honey. One day at a time; you can do this. Sending prayers and lots of love, Grandma Linda
I can only imagine how scary this next journey is feeling now, but with all the support, love and prayers and most importantly your determination and strength, you are gonna beat this!! Praying hard for you Summer!!❤️❤️
Summer: I will be thinking about you as you get settled. I have some things I want to send to you WHENEVER you are able to receive things from outside. God Bless
We are either going to be in target house or Ronald McDonald…. We will post that information once it’s locked in.
so glad you are there..prayers for everything that they will need you to do..thank goodness you are healthy and strong..this is such a blessing and keep the faith..so many people from church love you and are keeping prayers said….love you..chat soon Chris Bluhm