Even Our Signs Read Southern!

I'm running late tonight getting in here to blog.  I have been making orders for Christmas and book orders for the church library.  The time got away from me.  But, I can say that we are a couple of steps closer to having Christmas decisions made.

Today started out with heading to Vanderbilt.  The appointment was a bit later in the morning so we didn't have to leave super early...got on the road a little before 8am.  The place that the traffic seemed the heaviest and seemed to slow us down was right in Tullahoma.  We got on the road just as parents who had dropped off children at schools were on the way home.  We stopped for gas and then were on our way and got to Vanderbilt just a little before his scheduled time for lab work.  It took more than an hour for them to call him in for his labs...which meant that he wasn't finished with them before it was time for his appointment with Dr. Sosman (well, today with Debbie Wallace, his physician's assistant).  You can not even imagine how full the waiting room was...and this is a large waiting room.  Let's just say that Monday isn't a good day for an appointment.  We got our next appointments moved back to a Tuesday.  It didn't take long after his labs were done for him to be called into the exam room.  Debbie Wallace came in and talked to us for a while.  She explained that the infusion hadn't gotten scheduled (they didn't follow through after the insurance was approved) and that today they were too busy in the infusion clinic to be able to fit Woody in.  So...we will be going back on Thursday for his first infusion of Keytruda. That will be all that he will be getting that day...no labs...no doctor...just the infusion.  This infusion takes less time than his last infusion treatments.  These only takes 30 minutes versus 90 minutes before.  We got his next appointments which include the infusion this time for three weeks from tomorrow.  These infusions are given three weeks apart and unlike the Yervoy (Ipilimumab) there is no set number of them.  The number received depends on the results that are being seen.  After four infusions (12 weeks), he will have scans to check to see what effect the Keytruda is having on his melanoma.

Today we were driving away from Vanderbilt a little after noon.  We headed on down the road to our favorite stop for a "treat" for lunch...Steak and Shake.  Can it be possible that we will get this treat twice in one week...again on Thursday? Time will tell!  Woody even mentioned that we might head off and take pictures some place in Nashville.  But I'm not sure that it is a good idea to go much farther into the center of Nashville as I was reminded today that it is the CMA Awards and downtown Nashville is over run with country music fans!  Crowds are not my cup of tea!