this is the change I made:
ORIGINAL:
$uri = str_replace($home[1], '', $uri[0]);
$uri = preg_replace("@^([/]?)(.*?)([/]?)$@", "$2", $uri);
$uri = mysql_real_escape_string($uri);
MY CODE:
$uri = preg_replace("@^([/]?)(.*?)([/]?)$@", "$2", $uri);
$uri= "?".$uri[1];