We left home on Sunday 5th June at 2pm. We left our eldest crying in my Dad's arms. Those images are stuck in my mind and will probably always bring tears to my eyes. We left in an airport taxi to go to a hotel near Heathrow to start the next stage of Millie's utterly necessary treatment.
The journey up was uneventful. We got about 4 hours sleep before we had be up in time to get to Terminal 3 to check in with everything. We had decided to take the car seat - mainly to use in the hire car but we also found out that it could be used in the plane. My poor husband had to lug it about as hand luggage, with the other 3 bags. We also took the pram and were able to use it all the way upto the gate. I had spoken to the medical team of American Airlines and they had put a note on our file saying that we needed extra assistance. This meant we could take a slightly larger pram to the gate with us - Millie is better on her legs but is still unstable and gets tired easily. We barely got to the first flight on time, we had stopped to try and get some breakfast and didn't quite have enough time so ended up running to the gate which was miles away.
We flew from Heathrow to Chicago which took 8 hours and had a couple of hours there before connecting to Jacksonville. When we arrived in Chicago and by the time we had got of the plane with the car seat and got the pram the queue for immigration was massive. I looked at it and decided that we would never get through it in one piece with Millie and everything. So I collared an official looking guy and explained that we had a connection to Jacksonville in 2 hours and that we were going for our daughter's medical treatment. He checked our passports and then whisked us through the queues to another check point which seemed to be for military personnel only. There were 3 people in front! When we got to the front the lady asked how we had got there so I explained again and she checked us through, finger prints and all. We were through in 15 minutes. However, we still didn't have much time to make it to the next flight.
The flight to Jacksonville was 2 hours long and in a flying bus (3 seats across the plane with one aisle). When we arrived we found a porter waiting to help us with our bags, which was very welcome by that point. However, he spent a long time waiting for us as Millie decided she was going to walk. Katie had arranged a hire car for us which we duly picked up. My husband declined the option to upgrade! I think the flight must have effected him! And we somehow drove to the Ronald McDonald House where we are staying for a few days at least. We arrived at about half 5 Jacksonville time, half 10pm our time. we had been travelling for 17 hours! And Millie had been a star throughout.
The staff here were very welcoming. We were given the introduction, shown around, shown were to get food and shown our room and left to collapse. We had some food, unpacked enough to get to bed, settled Millie down and then passed out ourselves at about half 9 (half 2am UK time and 22 hours after we set off). Ready for the next day and Millie's first appointment at University of Florida Proton Institute (UFPTI).
When you have Little Feet and it's a Long Walk, you take One Step At A Time.
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