July 29, 2015.. When I was here in late March, the nurse helping the doctor I was seeing was filling in for the nurse that was on vacation. The nurse that was filling in is normally doctor Van Rhee's nurse. She was the most helpful nurse I have encountered here. I have become accustomed to putting a call in to MIRT to find out something important like treatment or medications, and I would not be able to contact anyone nor would I would not receive a return call. It is so very frustrating to need to find out something important and not be able to contact anyone. About a month ago, I got a note (as did Dr. Van Rhee's other patients) from her and said that she had been reassigned to another doctor, even with the objections of Dr. Van Rhee. I was so disappointed to hear this. My thoughts were "now I have gotten someone that I can contact if I have a problem or need something important and they have reassigned her". I got some good news last night. Management is leaving her with Dr. Van Rhee. I feel so much better about that now. I sent her a note to her UAMS email address last night thinking I would hear back from her today. About 10:30 last night, I got a reply and she said she would talk to the doctors that determine the results of the biopsy samples as well as Van Rhee. The question was should I wait until Monday to see Van Rhee or go ahead and keep the appointment with him tomorrow. I got a call from her today telling me that Van Rhee thought it best to see me tomorrow since he would not be seeing patients on Friday and would not be working on Monday. He will have partial results from the biopsy and full results from the other tests I have had. If the biopsy should show a surprise later, he can adjust his treatment for me. That sounded fine to me so we will be able to head home on Friday as we had originally planned. 
I had the PET and MRI scans today. The PET took much longer than usual. They have been doing so many scans, they had to rent a mobile PET scanner that is in a big truck trailer outside their normal scanning area. The whole process of using the mobile scanner took much longer than the scans I have gotten using the scanner in the hospital. They have a new scanner in the hospital they will put into use next Monday. When I finished with the PET, I went to the MRI area and as soon as I went to the check-in desk, the lady at the desk lit up with a big smile and came and gave me a hug. She had remembered me when I was here before. It was good to see her again. So many people that work there are so different than at home. For example, we were walking down the hall going to another appointment and this man pushing a trash buggy asked if he could help us find something. He had a really big smile and when we left him, he was still smiling and told us to have a good day. 
Tomorrow, I have the bone marrow at 9am but we plan to be there much earlier than that, so maybe they will start me early so there will be more time to determine the results. We have our appointment with Dr Van Rhee at 1pm.