to dallas i go

last night was "Cinderella" and it was very good. we had mediocore good seats. they were up high but in the center, so the stage was visible just not the up close parts of it.
i arrived at the restaurant thinking that my mom and her friends were already there but the maitre'd (?) was all like, "no they are not here yet. get a drink at the bar."
being 20 and inexperienced with bar drinking i just stood shyly by the door...sweating. so i cleaned up, called my mom, no answer, etc. i finally manuvered over to the bar and ordered a much needed ice water and sat there......waiting for my mom and her friends.
by happenchance i turned around and i saw them sitting at a table. i was right on the edge of the bar, clearly visible to my mom. but i didn't see her and she didn't see me.
it was quite hilarious whenever i finally walked over there.
the food at the Ferre was quite good. the kind of stuff you hear about and see on "Top Chef." But! IT WASN'T ENOUGH! I wish I could say that it was. But it so wasn't. My mom and I were starving afterwards. Great food though.
Like I said earlier, Cinderella was a very good show. I was super impressed with the Kim Whalen, who played Cinderella. Her mom is the counselors secretary at my mom's school and she came with us.
A girl from TCU was in the show also. That was great. When we got to go backstagish after the show the girl kind of recongized me so hooray for stuff like that.

Greg and I were both hungry that night so I bought frozen french fries and barbeque sauce and stuff like that and we had a feast (i cooked the french fries).

Today I have a doctors appt. I am exicted. Not really b/c I get to drive to dallas and go to the doctor but my mom will be in that area getting photopheresis so I will FINALLY get to go visit her!

"Photopheresis, also known as extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP), is a form of apheresis therapy. It involves light-activated treatment of circulating blood cells outside the body.

Photopheresis may act by modifying the patient's own immune response to his/her disease. On this basis, the therapy is being extended to graft vs. host disease, organ transplantations, and early scleroderma and other autoimmune diseases."

That was the most point blank definition of photopheresis i could find.
But from what I understand, every two weeks or so, for a period of time over two days my mom goes to the hospital to get this procedure. She gets it to help boost her energy and her immune system.
Because my mom had a bone marrow transplant she has some graft v. hosts disease, I don't think it's anything severe. My uncle's bone marrow is full engrafted in my mom's body. But I guess graft v. host is still a big threat.
And to help combat this, my mom gets photopheresis.

It's been past 2 years since she was diagnosed with leukemia and she's been in remission for over a full year. I think they say once you get past like 5 years, you're pretty good to go.
It seems almost surreal that my mom had to go through all of that. And that she's as healthy and strong as she is today.
Two of her friends who have had leukemia have relapsed...well one of them sadly passed away. My biggest fear is that this happens to her, to us.
So my biggest prayer is that it doesn't.

So on that note, I am more than grateful for every moment I get with my mom. I think we get closer daily.
Her leukemia is something I don't really think about, not b/c it's passed through my mind so easily...but it is not something that brings back pleasant memories. At all.
There is reason to be aware of the past but no reason to dwell on it. So I am looking forward to the next couple of hours....getting ready, driving to dallas, sitting at the doctors, going to see my mom, and maybe having lunch with her, then driving back to fort worth and.....cleaning.