Directions to NMH and links to map

I know many of you plan on visiting Stefan at some point in the next three weeks, so I thought I would post some directions online.

Stefan is at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in the Feinberg Pavillion, located at 251 E Huron Street in Chicago. If you prefer to map your directions with a preferred mapping program (MapQuest, Google Maps, Yahoo! maps, etc), please do.

I'm providing general driving directions with specific downtown directions to the garage and up to his room. I am also giving directions in both female and male vocabulary. (Confused? Read through the directions below and see if you can tell the difference... Still confused after you read them? Then you may want to consider taking a taxi to the hospital.)

For the ladies:
Driving Directions: I'm assuming you'll be taking 90 or 94. (290 directions are slightly different.) Take 90/94 East, towards downtown. Take the East Ohio St exit. Here's where computer maps will steer you differently... most will take you straight to Michigan Avenue - lots of lights and too many people. To avoid a lot of traffic and headaches... After taking the exit, Turn LEFT on N Orleans St - immediately as Ohio St comes to a stoplight just after going over the bridge. It's the VERY 1st light you come to after taking the E Ohio exit. Turn left (go North) on Orleans for TWO blocks. You need to turn RIGHT (go East) on E Erie St. You will continue East on Erie for a total of 11 blocks. Once you cross Michigan Ave, 9 blocks from Orleans, (trust me, you'll know when you get there), you'll want to continue on Erie for two more streets: cross St. Clair Street and then turn LEFT (north) on Fairbanks Ct. **Ignore the signs for NMH Parking that you'll see at the stop on St.Clair.** On Fairbanks, go one block north and turn LEFT (West) on E Huron St. (Love those one way streets downtown...!) In the middle of the block, turn RIGHT into the parking garage.
Garage and Hospital building directions: Turn left to go up on the first up ramp. When you circle up in search of a parking spot, you should be circling the south side of the garage; you should be passing the "H" elevators in the southeast corner of the garage on each floor. That is the elevator you want to walk to, so park close to any "H" elevators. TAKE your parking ticket WITH you so you can have it validated. Take the elevator down to the 2nd floor, where the pedestrian bridge is. Cross the bridge. If you took the correct elevator, when you enter the building across Huron, you'll be in the northwest corner of the Feinberg Pavillion. (If you didn't take the correct elevator, you'll be in the Galter Pavillion, just west of where you need to be. Walk east to the Feinberg Pavillion.) A short walk in, you'll see an information desk. Stop there, have your parking validated, and ask for guest passes to 1505. Continue left/east into the building; you'll come across an elevator lobby (just after the men's restroom) on the left. (If you're by escalators then you're on the wrong side - go back the other side.) Take the elevator (any one) up to the 15th floor. Exit the elevator lobby on 15 and turn left, passing the women's restrooms. You'll see a waiting room to the left of the entry doors. PLEASE BE SURE YOU DO NOT PUSH ON THE ENTRY DOORS - YOU WILL SET OFF THE ALARM! Use the plate on the wall to open the first set of doors. Enter the hallway. WAIT until the first set of doors has closed before pressing the plate to open the next set of doors. Walk thru the 2nd doors, turn left and immediately turn right (just follow the hall). Stefan's room is on the northwest corner of the Feinberg Pavillion, second from the end. Room 1505. If you've paid attention here, you will not get lost. Guaranteed. Knock on the door before entering. Wash your hands upon entering the room (sink in on the left). Enjoy your visit!

For the men:
Driving: You know where you're going, so why are you reading this? ...Okay, okay. Fine, I'll tell you... Take 90/94 and get off on the East Ohio Street exit.
Turn left on N Orleans St.
Turn right on E Erie St.
Go till you hit N Fairbanks Ct and turn left.
Turn left on E Huron St.
Turn right into the parking garage on the north side of Huron, across from the hospital.
Park. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor to get to the pedestrian bridge.
Go back to the car to get your parking ticket, since you forgot it.
Back to the elevator; 2nd floor; cross the bridge.
Get your ticket validated and get guest passes at the desk.
Follow your wife now. She knows how to get Stefan's room from here.
And if you would have listened to your wife in the first place, you wouldn't have missed the turn at Orleans, which means you probably went all the way to Michigan Ave to turn north. You would have missed a bunch of traffic and a bunch of stoplights. You would have been at the hospital fifteen minutes sooner. But that's okay, because you knew where you were going. Yeah, right.

My point? Women may talk a lot (okay, I may talk a lot) and we give really long driving directions... But people (ie, other women) who follow those directions don't get lost. Try it.
You just might like driving someplace without "taking the scenic route." ;>)

Here is a link to the Northwestern Campus map:
http://www.northwestern.edu/visiting/maps/chicago/webviewable/

The parent page, http://www.northwestern.edu/visiting/maps/, has links where you can download pdf printable maps.

If you're taking 290... Take 290 East. Before you get "into" downtown... Take 90/94 WEST, for a short ride. Take the E Ohio St exit. Follow directions above from that point... Turn LEFT on Orleans, and so forth.

http://www.transitchicago.com/maps/maps/F2002D.html
If you'd like to see a map of downtown, the CTA map is a good one to look at. You can see all the street names, and if you follow the directions the bus routes go, you can figure out the one ways. You can see 290 and 90/94, and you can visually follow the directions from your exit.
My drive into downtown today was different from my "normal" route... I followed 290 to Congress (90/94 was too congested to take up to Ohio). From there, I followed Wacker Drive (for added excitement, I took Lower Wacker Drive). I followed that to Michigan Avenue, crossed the river on the lower level of Michigan, turned left on Grand, right on Rush, up three streets to turn left on Erie, crossed Michigan, went to Fairbanks and went the rest of the way to the garage. All in all, not a bad trip - didn't stop once on Lower Wacker, and there is even less traffic there than on Orleans. I wouldn't make that trip at night, but at 11am, it was fine. Stefciu had fun, because we were constantly in a tunnel or under a bridge - it was a different trip from the backseat for him too!

Whichever way you choose to go, good luck getting there. Good luck finding a parking spot without driving all the way up to level 9 (level 10 is rooftop parking). And enjoy your visit.
--SMK

Friday update, 9/16; VISITING? Read this.

I went to Stefan for a while today. He was looking good. Tired, yes. Gaunt, yes - he has lost 15 pounds since this all started, so of course he's going to look a bit gaunt and thin in the face. He looks bored to be in the hospital, but it's that kind of bored where you don't have much to do, and what there is to do - you don't want to do. If that makes any sense. He's gotten up and walked around the halls, like his doctor told him he should be doing... but is it something he wants to do? No... not really.

He sighs a lot, and the attitude he expresses is one where he's just resigned to be there and go through all this crap. Obviously, it's not what someone would choose to... But he's got to do it nonetheless - the chemo, the testing, the waiting, the poking, the middle-of-the-night checks... he doesn't really get much say in it all. He's just playing along, letting the doctors and staff do what they need to do.

He's been a good sport about it, at least for the first ten nights at NMH. Tonight will be his tenth night... He asked Daniella if she was keeping track of how many days he's been in the hospital. Me, I don't see how that matters. Counting the days doesn't make them go by any faster or make your stay any shorter. But since he's counting, today was the 9th day there and tonight will be the 10th night. It seems like so much longer, but it hasn't even been two weeks since he was diagnosed.

As far as losing weight... that's to be expected. Stefan hasn't completely lost his appetite... yet. He may, he may not. Since he's not on food restrictions or on a special diet, he can eat what he wants, even if it's junk food. The only thing he has to watch is raw fruits and vegetables... nothing with the skin on (grapes, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, etc) and nothing raw - cooked veggies (and fruits) are okay for him to eat. He doesn't usually have a "taste" for anything special, but he will wolf down what tastes good to him that day. Wednesday, he scarfed down two roast beef sandwiches for dinner. Yesterday and today he had homemade soup Daniella brought from home. So he's still eating at each meal, just not as much as he used to eat. And that's why he's losing weight - he's not eating as many calories per day as he was, so he's not maintaining his former weight. Dr. Olga said she'd be happy if Stefan consumed 1000 calories a day, so right now, that's what Stefan is striving to reach daily.

I met Dr. Olga Frankfurt today. She's very nice, knowledgable, supportive, and informative. Dr. Olga said Stefan is a healthy, relatively young man who had an active life; she said all his organs are intact (in other words, not affected by the leukemia), so she sees no reason why he can't resume his life the way it was before he was diagnosed. Some things will change, but not too much.

Stefan is slated to stay at NMH another three weeks - one week of waiting, and two weeks of regenerative therapy, assuming he's in remission. Dr. Olga expects him to be in remission, so that's how she speaks when planning the future. Once he's done with that, he can go home. And stay home. He can "visit" the shop... but he can't stay more than an hour or two per day... ummm, "visit." No going back to work till his full strength resumes, I'm guessing when his immune system is no longer out of whack.

- - - - - - - - - -

Visitors... Let's make this clear: Yes, Stefan is medically okay to have healthy visitors. BUT... Physically, he needs a period of rest after every "active" time period. If he's up, say... walking, for a half hour, when he's done he'll go back to bed to lay down and rest for a half hour. The same is true when he has visitors. It's physically taxing (not to mention emotionally and spiritually taxing) for Stefan to sit up and talk with his visiting guests. Each time a guest leaves, Stefan needs to rest. Theoretically, a ten minute visit should be followed by a ten minute rest.

There is a growing number of supportive family and friends who want to visit Stefan, and - understandably - they all would like to come visit on the weekend (since that's when they have the time). If he has six families/couples/guests who come to visit him... Do the math: A hypothetical TEN minute visit per guest unit (single, couple, family) is an hour's worth of visiting time. Interspersed with a brief 10 minute rest in between visitors, that's another hour. That's two hours, assuming that all visits are kept to TEN minutes. You and I know that's about as likely to happen as having Chicago turn into the land of the midnight sun... it ain't gonna happen that way. And Stefan isn't about to say "Your 10 minutes is up, please leave now so I can rest." He's gonna want to answer all your questions, and tell his whole story. And you're gonna want to hear it all. So here's what I'm asking...

Each of you, if you go to visit him, please remember he's weak but he's proud - he's not going to let on that he's too tired to visit or that he'd like to rest now. You came all the way to see him - he's not going to tell you that you have to leave. So please take it upon yourselves... Try to limit your visit to 10-15 minutes. Come back after a while, if you have the time to spend. (In other words, make it worth the $8.50 you're going to pay for parking - if you validate your parking ticket.)

Visit with Stefan, but remember that he needs his rest. Also, if it's the weekend, remember that you're probably not his only visitor that day. If it's at all possible to get downtown during the week, you may very well be the only visitor he has that morning or afternoon. Steve and I seem to be getting down to see him on alternating days. Your chances at a longer visit with more time to talk to Stefan are much better if you can go during the week. Make an afternoon of it, like Steve and I do... Go see Stefan for a while; go take Daniella to lunch (or whatever meal it's time for); go back and see Stefan again after he rested for a bit. Splitting the visit up like that lets us visit with Stefan for a longer time, but without tiring him out so much. I know you all want to go see him - I wish I could be down there every day too. But even Daniella leaves his side for short periods of time so he could rest.

Those of you who are planning on visiting Stefan have probably already been in contact with Daniella, either via email or on the phone. If you haven't, please call her (or email her) to let her know - she can tell you if when you're planning is expected to be a busy time or not. And other than what I've already written, I can't think of much else to say. Gee... guess I'll just have to leave a short post today... Ha ha ha. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Comment from Daniella, Fri 9/16

Daniella intended this to be a post, but it ended up as a comment instead. She asked me to post it on the blog for her. --Suzia

Friday, first day off of Chemo. Stefan is still tired but he was up and around walking his floor. The doctor told him to do a few laps (meaning 12-13) he did 4. Ok that is a start. I brought soup from home yesterday (Thurs). He had one bowl, today he had another bowl. It must be the soup because he is looking better to me already. Take care you all. --Daniella

Friday 1st day after finishing chemo

Friday, first day off of Chemo.
Stefan is still tired but he was up and around walking his floor. The doctor told him to do a few laps (meaning 12-13) - he did 4. Ok, that is a start.
I brought soup from home yesterday (Thurs). He had one bowl on thursday. Today he had another bowl. It must be the soup because he is looking better to me already.
Suzia was here when the oncologist came today; she asked questions and got quite a few good answers. Even the Dr. was amazed at what Suzia was asking. Of course, Suzia has done a crash course on the internet, just as I'm sure all of you have done on this subject. I am sure Suzia's blog post will update you more than I have.
Stefan is very grateful for the email and mail that has come in. Thank you one & all. -Daniella

Thursday, 9/15 - Last day of chemo

Good morning all...
I was hoping Steve would post how Stefan was doing yesterday, since Steve went to visit him and I didn't. Maybe he'll post later...

I met up with Daniella yesterday, so she could come home and get what she needed. I drove her back to the El, as I didn't have enough time to drive her to the hospital and get home from downtown before the girls came home from school.

I'll be going down to NMH in just a bit here, so when I get back, I'll post how Stefan is doing today.

Weather turned miserable yesterday - raining since later afternoon. Miserable only because we've been so used to nice, sunny - if hot - weather. But fall is just around the corner, literally. And with the start of fall comes the weather we so love in Chicago - rainy, windy, gray...blah.

Stefan was doing well yesterday. His energy level is still low, but his oncologist asked him to start walking down to the nurses' station daily, as well as to get up and sit in the chair rather than just staying in bed. He finished his chemo yesterday evening, so we'll see how today goes. We've all got to wait a week before they do the biopsy which will bring the results of the chemo's effectiveness. So, we wait.

In the meanwhile, ask for the return of sunny days - at least on Saturday mornings, when Ela has her soccer games!!!

More to come later tonight.