Getting off the plane in Houston was, as so often happens for those of us with the good fortune of living in Colorado, a shocking, intense blast of wet heat. My hair curled instantly.
The shuttle to the hotel is free, but infrequent; however, my timing was fortuitous and I didn't have to wait too long. The hotel is in a super industrial area -- train tracks, warehouses, open yards of supplies, a housing project, not a store or restaurant in the vicinity -- but close to the hospital center. And there's a slightly more frequent shuttle for that. There's at least five hospitals on this "campus" and MD Anderson has a north and south cluster, each with several buildings.
The Sarcoma Center and all the imaging stations for today are in the main building. My identifier is my patient #, followed by my birthday. Everyone is nice, but sometimes, they don't bother to ask my name, even my last name. And the place, as I guess is true of most air conditioned environments, vacillates between freezing and sweltering.
There's probably thousands of patients here and I had a couple bad moments. The sweet hand drawn pictures of the children cancer patients on the walls, all the women with scarves on their heads, the four amputees in the Sarcoma Center waiting area. WHAT AM I DOING HERE? HOW THE HELL CAN I BE THIS SICK? But I'm over it, at least for the moment.
I ate lunch at the cafeteria -- and could hear my father bitching about the food @ Mt Sinai. I flashed on how we smuggled milk shakes into my father-in-law in the hospital in CT. 'Nuf said. Even the latte was lousy, and the chocolate chip cookie remained 1/2 eaten -- which is saying something for those of you who know me well. So, for dinner I walked across the sky bridge to the nice hotel, where at least I'm having a decent Chardonnay. The salmon is farmed, but it IS Houston.
The waiting rooms have, with the exception of Xray, been packed. And behind. The times on the appointments seem to be pulled from thin air. So far, I've had check in (30 minutes late -- they didn't have a room -- really?!), blood work (45 min), chest Xray (15 min) & CT Scan (1 hr 15). The MRI desk said they were running 90 minutes late, but I should come on time for my check in anyway. Maybe a 'hope springs eternal' optimism. All of these procedures have been quick, though. Even the CT scan only lasted a couple minutes. The only slightly painful thing is the needle they've stuck in my arm to push in the "contrast" for the CT and MRI. For the CT it's iodine (not radioactive), but it's a lot so its a 20 gage needle. Huge!
Meanwhile, I missed three work events today. I did do a little work on the plane and was able to respond to email, and even do a small amount of thinking as I was waiting between and for appointments. Not the best environment for quality contemplation, but there's worse, I'm sure.
On the home front, Ben successfully switched to the advanced science class -- why they told him last year he didn't qualify is beyond us, but it's done, with no adverse effects, so wonderful. And thank goodness for the Ghayurs who are feeding and sheltering him for the night. I've been getting 'atta girl'/'we're rooting for you' emails, texts and FB posts all day; I've got great friends and family. And, Bill is in the air on his way down here to be in the room for the treatment plan consultation appointments (w/ oncologist and surgeon) tomorrow. Makes me cry, but then many things seem to!
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