The "It's March Madness Time!", edition.

Good Friday morning!  It's March Madness time here in the Perry-Fields household!!  The wait is over!  No. It's not basketball. It's warm enough in the morning for Dad and Brian to hit the jacuzzi!  Lol.  Yeah. It's still too cold for me. It's currently 61 degrees and sun is just about to crest the mountain. Once the sun comes up, it will warm up. And the jacuzzi is heated.  It's still a bit chilly for me. But it's been warm in the afternoons here and not only have Dad and Brian hit the hot tub, we've seen other people heading out to the pool area. Heh. While at deep water fitness yesterday, there was a conversation with a lot of people who've left "snow", including the young lifeguard from Chicago. Lol.  No one was interested in returning. It was basically a "a laugh and point at you" party. (I still love you, but I'm not coming back during the winter!). 

Speaking of coming back.  We're tentatively planning a trip to Detroit this summer. The logistics are making my head spin. Dad wants to go to Yellow Springs, Ohio. I think we're having a family reunion. Brian and I plan on going also.  We decided that since we'd be in Ohio (even if it's southern Ohio, almost Kentucky), we'd drive to Detroit. Shawn found out. She wants to attend the family reunion and go to Detroit also. Ok. I've been thinking about how to do this. Oh yeah. Dad is just gonna fly to Columbus. He's not involved in our drama. Lol. Dad is from Yellow Springs and my brother lives there, along with a bunch of family. Yellow Springs, Ohio is one of my favorite places!!!

Shawn lives in Urbana, Illinois. It's about a 4 hour drive to Yellow Springs. But even if she drove there, what would she do with her car as we drove to Detroit?  So I thought Brian and I would fly to Indianapolis have her meet us there, drive to Yellow Springs and Detroit, then back to Indianapolis. Gah. That's a lot of driving. I finally  settled  on flying to Chicago, driving to Urbana to pick up Shawn (spending the night in Urbana), then heading on to Yellow Springs. Then go to Detroit for a few days. When we leave Detroit, we'd put Shawn on Amtrak and get her back home to Urbana. Whew!  Keep in mind, I still have arrange moving my portable kidney and have supplies shipped to Yellow Springs and Detroit. I'm sure you're also asking why we're not using Shawn's car. She has a nice little Ford Escort, which is fine, until I need to transport my private kidney machine. I need more car to transport us and our luggage. 

Just to let you know, when I fly with my private kidney machine, I try to avoid connecting flights. I don't want the airlines to "misplace" my kidney. Like our trip to Augusta. We're flying into Atlanta, then driving to Augusta. The bulk of the supplies will be shipped to the hotel in Augusta. More details to come.  And yes, I've already paid for the flight and reserved the hotel. I'll do the car rental later. 

Dialysis update. I told you I had to get my kidney machine replaced. And it was. Unfortuneatly the settings on the cycler were set to default. We didn't find out until we started treatment. Several settings were off. This resulted in a ridiculously long treatment. Treatment is a 2 step process. Removal of toxins and removal of fluid. It usually takes just under 3 hours for both. But since the settings were incomplete, the toxins removal took just over 3 hours with the timer indicating another 2 hours to remove the remains fluid. {Really Big Frowny Face}.  We ended treatment after the toxin removal. Brian called the nurse Thursday, got and entered to correct settings for me, my prescription. We ran the treatment last night. All was well!! 

Finally, I told you I was getting financial relief on one of my meds. I found out just how much. The price of this one drug is $622.00 for a 30 day supply. I was eligible for a program which brought the cost down to {drum roll}.... $10.00!!!!!!!!  I'm sending my social worker a big bouquet of flowers for that one!!

Well. That's it for today. Have a great weekend!