More efficiency at the BMT clinic Monday than I thought was possible.

My appointment Monday was at 10:30 and I arrived at the registration desk right at that time and was greeted by a young lady that I did not know and who had several other things to do before asking my name.  I told her I am Ron Willden, but you may have to look for Charles.  After all this time it still seems unusual to be addressed as Charles, because I have never gone by my first name and in all of our personal records and affairs I use Ronald.  After she registered me she sent me to wait in the hallway where I almost fell asleep waiting for Craig to come take me in for vitals, which didn't happen until after 11:00.  He then seated me in the last chair in the extended Infusion Room where I found a tray in front of the chair with the equipment necessary for placing a line in my port.  Vivien, my nurse for the day, came in a few minutes later but still had stuff to find so she didn't start with the line for 10 minutes or so.  When she did start Kristy came in with the Velcade and I was told that Vivien would remove the line as soon as she infused the Velcade.  I was out of the clinic by 11:35, which made for one of or perhaps the shortest visit ever.

I didn't post yesterday because our daughter Karen who is visiting from her home near Chicago and we had all sorts of things to do before her departure home today.

I did not post last Monday, which was day-one of the current cycle, because  we had returned on Sunday from a trip to Durango, Colorado, where we attended a reunion of the Texas-based Willden family.  And after getting home from an over-long visit to the BMT clinic and some serious unwinding to do I had no stomach for posting.  My appointment had been changed from 1:00 to 1:15 ostensibly to make an Exam Room available for Mary Steinbach, the PA for that day, to use for her interview with me.  The interview was conducted with me sitting in a chair in the Infusion Room because no Exam Rooms were avilable.  I told Mary how inconvenient my scheduled visits are and particularly these afternoon visits that last over-long and I then have to contend with going-home traffic.  She commiserated with me and said that she will try to get my schedule adjusted so that I come in at the time I find most convenient and I requested 10:00 or 10:30.  I then asked her about any pending breakthroughs in treating Multiple Myeloma such as those that we learn about with breast cancer or childhood leukemia and she said that there is a lot of resarch on-going, some of it in this hospital, and there are a couple of  promising new drugs nearing approval, one of which that has fewer side effects than the Velcade  that I now take (not particularly important to me becasue my body has adjusted to my drug regimen and my side effects are more or less confined to the peripheral neuropaqthy in my feet and fingers)

Mt brothers family has been holding such reunions for many years, but this was the first one that we had attended since 2008 and my nephew who does the organizing had urged me to attend--hopefully with my 3 daughters--because they would be celebrating the 65th anniversary of the wedding of my brother and his wife.  I then reminded him that Emma and I will be celebrating our 65th wedding anniversary September 1.  He then urged me to make an effort to get all of us to attend because it would be an especially important event.  I forwarded his email to all the girls and we discussed it by telephone and eventually all agreed to make an effort to go.  Karen flew into Denver June 12 where Judy met her and the two of them took of on a trip to visit as many of Colorado-centered National Parks as they could before meeting Emma, me, and Nancy in Durango on the 18th.  Nancy did most of the driving and she and Karen shared the driving on the return trip.  All the girls enjoyed themselves and are now talking about going next year if the reunion is held in the same place, a LDS owned Boy Scout camp about 25 or 30 miles north east of Durango.  My brother thinks it likely that they can get next year, but won't know until after the first of the year because all of the interested Wards have first choice, but may not want Father's Day weekend again.