Day 89, Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Another surpringly gloriously sunny day, it was. Pop and I got coffee again, and afterwards, we all walked down to Whole Foods for supplies for supper, before heading back to the SCCA. I had appointments, Dad needed his new schedule. We parted ways when we arrived at the clinic.

I met with a very friendly lady from finance, and the conversation went something like this:

Her: "How are you today?"

Me: "Great! It's fantastic outside, and if this meeting is anything like the last time I met with finance, it'll take two minutes."

Her: "How'd that one go?"

Me: "Well, the lady I talked to asked me who my insurance provider was, and I said, 'Canada?', and that was pretty much the end of that."

Her: "Hahaha, well, it's going to be the same thing today. You're pre-approved for all funding, so you go enjoy that sunshine. It turned out I didn't even really need to see you, but when they told me you were waiting, it gave me an excuse to walk outside."

She was nice. I don't remember her name (I don't remember any names: chemo brain), but she was very nice.

Then, it was up to the sixth floor for an EKG, eventually; boy howdy, was I early for that. An EKG takes longer to set up than it actually takes to have the test done, so even though the mobile EKG unit was old enough to have a floppy drive, the whole thing only required about ten minutes of my time, and it even taking that long was probably because I was chatting with the tech. Apparently, the unit has to send its data to the UWMC by dial-up modem, and that is absolutely adorable.

I think, to a lot of the older patients I encounter, I'm like a transplant mascot. This seems to be for two reasons: one, I am handling the side effects of transplant and conditioning like a bloody champion; two, I am half their age, and that seems to give them hope. I have a lot of conversations where they gaze at me with a sort of admiring wistfulness and say things like, "Wow, you're looking fantastic!" Life as a cancer patient is a weird and strange ride, and you take inspiration where you can find it, though I personally find being inspirational a very strange thing.

We had supper in again, and I started reading Carl Sagan's Cosmos (mostly because Ash is reading it, and if Carl was still alive, I think she'd leave me for him), and it is fantastic.

Moxy Fruvous - My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors