Mid-term in cycle 10

Yesterday was day 15 in maintenance cycle ten and it was a completely routine day except a nurse or med-tech that I had never seen before had to be reminded that she needed to weigh me and take my temperature, which have always been done as part of my vital signs. She then inserted a line in my port and collected 4 vials of blood and then led me into the Infusion Room for my Velcade shot, which I could not have until the results of the bloodwork were available and this seemed to take longer than usual. I had gotten there just before 8:30 and did not leave until after 10:00. I did one errand on the way home that took far longer than it should have because I had been given the wrong street address. I was buying a new driver's side mirror for the pickup and after I got it I spent all afternoon finding a Torc fitting to get the old mirror off the door and then installing the new mirror.


Today I had an appointment with Dr. Sheetal Shah, a nephrologist I was referred to by Dr. Kuo in April of 2009 because of irregularities that showed up in the blood work he had done in February and which ultimately led to the diagnosis of me having multiple myeloma. I first saw her in May of last year and she required bloodwork and a urine analysis and that I come back in one month, but by that time Dr. Corcoran, the hematologist/oncologist that Dr. Kuo had referred me to had required a 24-hour urine collection, more blood work, a bone marrow biopsy, a full body x-ray examination, and the determination that I did indeed have multiple myeloma. So on subsequent visits (2 month intervals for awhile and now 6 months) with Dr. Shah I did not allow any tests to be done in her office because she has access to all the test performed elsewhere. I had last seen her 6 months ago and after a short visit today she said I should come back in another 6 months. The bloodwork that the BMT clinic at the Huntsman Hospital does every 2 weeks is teating the kidney malfunction that she is monitoring and she gets a copy of each letter written by the doctors at the clinic so she does not need to have additional tests run at her clinic.