It's all good.  Well, yesterday's trip to the cancer center didn't start all that well: it's exactly 75 minutes from our garage to the center, so we prepared to leave at 7 for our first 8:15 appointment, but our good intentions went for naught, and we were late leaving.  Then, at the first turning, the supposedly leak-proof coffee mug fell over, slopping hot coffee on my jeans and the car seat.  The drive to KC was uneventful until for some inexplicable reason we drove right past our exit from the interstate and ended up in the stockyards district.  Mohamed kept asking me where to turn--I who was completely lost--until he said, "Oh, if we turn here we'll end up at the McDonald's on Rainbow," which was exactly where we needed to be.  And once arrived, I got Marci, my least favorite phlebotomist.  She seemed to be on her game yesterday.  Sure, she dropped the needle on the floor, but she replaced it, got all the blood samples on the first try, and put in the right sized port.

It was all uphill from there.  I had taken some of the revised legal documents (durable power of attorney for health care decisions and living will) with me, and within five minutes they were scanned into the system.  (The day before we had taken care of the last matter at the bank, so now I have no excuse for not starting the green card application process.)  After the blood work, I went for the CT scans.  Usually, this takes about an hour, beginning with the drinking of two large glasses of what they keep assuring me is only water.  But I was the only person there for the scans, and the tech said to drink as much as I could, but not to force myself, and he'd be back in 15 or 20 minutes.  And 20 minutes later, I was lying on the table, jeans pulled down to my knees, listening to the familiar mechanical voice saying, "Breathe in.  Hold your breath.  Breathe."

We had a 45-minute wait before we saw Jennifer, the physician assistant whom we like a lot.  Certain that she wouldn't have the results yet, we debated whether to wait until she did have them or just discuss them on a later phone call.  But when we got in--and unlike Dr. Van, Jennifer is always punctual--the results of both the blood work and the scans were already there.  The very good news is that the kidney tumor has not grown at all.  It has changed its form a little, but it has exactly the same mass as before.  After worrying about the bulge on my left side for the last weeks, we both greatly relieved by the results.  Jennifer examined the bulge, which is clearly visible, but there's no real explanation for it.  It hasn't grown in the last month, so we'll just keep monitoring it, but it doesn't seem related to the cancer.

The drive home was uneventful.  As usual, I slept for a few minutes, and then once home, I crashed for about three hours, despite the fact that there's nothing particularly fatiguing about the tests.  Mohamed brought me sushi for dinner, and since I'd lost weight since the last exam, I felt justified in finishing off the sushi with some double chocolate gelato and Chips Ahoy--the wonderful capacity of the human mind for rationalization!