Return to BMT clnic after hectic 20 day "vacation"

I received a phone call from Dr. Atanckovic's office Saturday reminding me that I had an appointment at the clinic at 10:00 AM Monday. so I made sure that I would be on time and actually got there about 5 minutes early and then waited in the lobby area for more than 30 minutes before my nurse for the day, Nateli, came to take me for vitals.  I had seen Oliver when I was worrying that my records may have slipped through a crack and told him as much so he went to the Infusion Room and came back to tell; me that they were waiting for a chair to be emptied for my use.  That was just the beginning of the waits for the day.

Natelie placed a line in my port and collected 3 vials of blood, the number of which I questioned because on this 3-month interval I expected to take more and sure enough; she came back later to get one more needed by the lab because of the 24-hour urine collection I had brought in. I told her about my 2 skinned up arms that I hoped she would be able to change the bandages, which she promised to do after getting the blood samples on the way to the lab.  Some of the other nurses helped with the bandage change and after I told them about my falling to cause the abrasions they all told me to stop falling; easier said than done considering the rough nature of our yards.  Janet took an order for a sandwich, about 11:45 and the sandwich wasn't delivered until about 12:45, by which time I had been given the Velcade infusion and left shortly after with another wait in the pharmacy for a refill that had not been called in. Altogether one wait after another.

We had been anticipating  this vacation for weeks because we had a date to go to Roger's home on Tuesday for drinks and a light meal before going to the Pioneer Memorial Theater to see Sweet Charity, but our mood was darkened almost as soon as Roger met us at the door to tell us that he had just heard from his middle son's wife that his son had perished in a house fire about a week before (they lived in Germany).  She had been in a hospital recovering from severe smoke inhalation, which explained the delay in notifying him. Roger never received a thorough explanation of the circumstances or cause(s) of the fire, but did learn that he was being cremated and the ashes would be sent to Utah. The drinks lightened the mood some and the show helped even more.  Roger said that he called his daughter in Ireland and she would come to help with the arrangements for internment once they knew when the ashes would arrive.  We saw Roger again when we met at Applebees Saturday afternoon for a late lunch before going to the Hale Center Theater to see Arsenic and Old Lace and were astonished to see Laurie sitting at the table with him.  We invited them to come out for mararitas the following Wednesday and when they came we learned that Dave's ashes had arrived by postage and they had arranged for interment next to Shirley.