Changes at the BMT clinic

I was warmly greeted at the BMT clinic this morning because I hadn't been there since April 22 and I responded by telling them that I missed coming every Monday, which is only partly true.  I found a number of changes underway when I got there, which was almost ten minutes early because of light traffic: There were two new "girls" in the reception room; One of whom was a very pretty young lady, Janae, learning the procedures that Sal had used to register patients and an older lady learning Nick's work also was registering patients.  Nick was still there assisting, mainly the older lady, but said that he was moving upstairs.  It was also mentioned that Elliott was either leaving or changing jobs and I did not learn which.  I had received a letter from Abby, one of the PAs I see regularly telling us that she is leaving June 5 to take a position with the BMT Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  I was asked what I had done during my "vacation.," and I told them we had done some travelling and they wanted to know where we had gone so I told them that we had 12 made trips into the Cottonwood canyons to release squirrels that we had trapped.

Janae registered me and because the clinic was not crowded I was taken into the Infusion Room immediately by Scott, one of the 2 male nurses, for vitals after he had first weighed me and then he placed a line in my port and drew 7 vials of blood.  I had to wait for results on the blood before Oliver, the other male nurse, could give me the Velcade infusion.  I told Oliver that I was very sorry to learn that Abby is leaving (a feeling he shared) and that I hoped to get back into my woodshop to complete a cutting board that I could give her as a parting gift.  She was not there today inasmuch as she had gone to New York for the weekend. When the bloodwork was reported Amanda told me that everything was normal and had remained steady as compared to my prior results.

I have been buying, and drinking, weight loss beverages because of their protein content and do not particularly like them.  I had been doing this because I was told my protein level was low and I should eat more red meat or more eggs or do something to raise the protein count.  I now plan to use up the protein drinks and switch to drinks that I like.

Work in the woodshop hade been in abeyance from the time I started treatment in the Huntsman Clinic until late January of this year when grandson Daniel volunteered that Grandpa and he would make a cradle for the great grandchild due in February.  This turned out to be a much more difficult job than I anticipated because we tried  to use sketchy plans from a November 1993 woodworking magazine which we failed to read thoroughly before starting to cut boards.  We made a number of mistakes and then found that measurements and directions in the magazine were either wrong or inaccurate.  But it was finally finished and the result is:   Pictured sitting in our living room on Mother's Day.  The other pictures show the cradle downstairs and should not be here, but I don't know how to get rid of them (overkill).   Sorry.