Adrienne's at College!!!

It's been a whirlwind week for Adrienne. On Tuesday, we loaded the car to the brim with Adrienne's things and drove down to Claremont, California, a beautiful little college town that looks much like Los Altos or Menlo Park. The downtown area is about 8 blocks by 5 blocks and is easily reached from the college campuses. The surrounding communities of Ontario and Pomona aren't nearly as nice but I expect Adrienne will be on campus most of the time.

On Wednesday, we met a doctor and the staff at City of Hope. The place is enormous and a bit overwhelming compared to the relatively small size of Stanford. They have volunteer guides who take you from one building to another and one clinic to another. It will take some getting used to but the care is excellent. I had spoken to COH before we made the decision to go to Seattle for Adrienne's second transplant, and now I'm glad we made the choice we did as it was obviously the best place for her at that time. Because Hodgkin's Disease has such high cure rates, especially in young people, there are no institutions that have any experience with her situation. COH has two patients now that failed autologous transplants and they are trying to figure out the next steps.

Thursday was Adrienne's first day of orientation with a corresponding parents' orientation so we saw each other for brief times throughout the day. Adrienne's dad and stepmom came for several hours and I stayed into the evening to help her unpack and get set up. The college is amazing and obviously very dedicated to the students. Adrienne seemed a bit worried about being on her own when I left on Thursday night but she sounded much more excited when I got e-mail from her yesterday. The big issue appears to be her roommate, who is a bit of a snob. We'll just have to see how that goes. If worse comes to worse, I suppose Adrienne can get a new roommate but I'm sure she wants to stay in her room, which overlooks a Japanese garden. Her room is very big with two large closets so she doesn't seem to need some of the space-saving items we purchased before she went. This afternoon, the school is taking the kids in vans to Target and Best Buy so she can get the few items she still needs, like a desk lamp.

Daniel took the opportunity in southern California to visit with some friends he made at Supercamp. On the way home, we stopped at Magic Mountain so he could ride the roller coasters. Despite his earnest attempt to get me on one, I managed to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground.