Another post a day late

My appointment yesterday was the last of the current 4-week cycle and was at 12:00 for a Velcade infusion and at 1:45 for a meeting with Dr. Atanackovic and Emma went with me because she had no other activity and she likes to hear firsthand what the doctor tells me.  We both had a long wait  not only for the meeting with the doctor but also for the infusion.  Laurie was my nurse and she collected us from the hallway waiting area and took us to the weighing room and then from there to chair #4 in the Infusion Room.  She had ordered a sandwich for me and apologized to Emma for not having ordered one for her, but I assured her that one sandwich would do for both of us.  The kitchen makes such big sandwiches that I cannot eat all of one and always take half, if not all, home to share with Emma or save for the next day.  Laurie also said that she had ordered the Velcade and I shouldn't have long to wait, but here she was wrong and Emma worried that I would be late for the meeting with the doctor because the Velcade had  not come by 1:00.  To ease Emma's mind I approached Laurie's desk about ten minutes later and she showed me that she had the Velcade, but she said that Dr. Atanackovic had been running late all day and she was waiting to be sure an exam room was available.

Laurie soon put a line in my port and administered the infusion and withdrew the line and summoned Shelley, a new to me nurses aide, to take us to an exam room where she asked questions about my medications and general health.  I told her about the upset stomach that I had experienced during the night  and we speculated as to its cause without coming up with one.  We then began to appreciate how behind Dr. Atanackovic had gotten that day.  It was well after 2:30 before we saw him; prior to that Meg, a clinical nurse who had been my nurse on a previous visit, popped in to tell me she was one of the doctor's nurses now and to give me her card with a request to call if I had other bowel disturbances.  The ensuing visit with Dr. Atanackovic was quite short. he said that my markers have stayed very steady and at a low level and he thinks continuing the present course of visits and medications with 3-month collection of data on my markers (blood work and a 24-hour urine collection for analysis) followed by another visit with him in six months is the proper course at this time.  I agreed wholeheartedly and bid him farewell, but he said to wait for a nurse to check us out. Francesca accompanied by another nurse, whose name I unfortunately missed because she will be my on-going contact with the doctor, cane in shortly after and gave me the results of all the latest tests and talked about my schedule going forward.  She will have a schedule for the next round of cycles and will have it ready for me when I return on March 30.  I have asked her not to try to send anything via email because they have to send it encrypted and I have had a terrible time trying access the encrypted messages.