Relieved

A weight lifted off my shoulders when I found out almost by accident that my health insurance covers transportation to and from medical appointments.

That's right, taxis from South Hadley to Dana-Farber and back. Not only can I start it next week, I could have used it all along. And to get around to Margaret's or Diane's for spending the night, I can use The Ride, an MBTA program costing only $3 per ride.

I wish I had known about this before. It would have saved miles on my car, money spent on gas,  and fatigue and stress while driving.  But, cliche appropriate here: It's not good to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Esther, my nurse on Monday, had heard me talking to a representative from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society about a patient travel assistance program application that I was trying to fill out with one hand. She said that Dana-Farber had helped other patients resolve transportation issues, and she offered to email Tammy Weitzman, one of the Dana-Farber social workers. Tammy called me immediately and said that a woman named Hannah-who-works-very-quickly would get on it, and sure enough, the next day Hannah called and said she had taken care of it.

I talked to Hannah today to get the phone numbers for making reservations and another for setting up a Ride account and depositing money into it. My pickup in South Hadley is scheduled for noon on Monday. Thankfully I can sit back and let someone else handle the traffic.

By the way, Hannah is Hannah Kitzmiller. She works in Patient and Family Programs and Services.

Four ECP sessions down. Only 20 to go.

It was quiet Monday in the section of the Kraft Blood Donor Center devoted to ECP, but yesterday morning the place was humming with activity. I dozed on and off through it. A nice pathologist who walked around checking on us said you just have to get into the groove of boredom.

The needle in my arm hurt on and off but felt better with a heating pad on it. The challenging part is  hardly moving for three hours.

It took a few minutes for me to straighten up after getting out of the chair.

"Oil me," I said.