August 15th — Friday Greg and I spent three hours at my oncologist’s office for a check up that could have lasted 20 minutes. It’s hard to get too grumpy about Dr. K running late because when it’s your turn, he sits down and talks to you and doesn’t make you feel rushed at all. In fact, Dr. K has a reputation of getting behind in his appointments but I had gotten spoiled to my early morning pre-chemo timeslots when he still was on time. The receptionist told us he was running late, and Greg and I went out to lunch and then came back and still had another 30 minutes or so of waiting. The good news is there’s not much to tell. I’m healthy, appear to be “no evidence of disease” (NED), and my labwork is good. When I asked him what to look for in signs of metastatic disease, Dr. K said it wouldn’t be subtle. I would feel puny and turn jaundiced due to liver problems or have serious pain. That’s actually comforting because I don’t have to worry about every twitch and twang. Dr. K is investigating the vaccine clinical trial I’m interested in to make sure it won’t do more harm than good although he was slightly pessimistic about the effectiveness of any breast cancer vaccine in general. He doesn’t want to see me for three more months. That’s great news. As much as I enjoy Dr. K’s company, not seeing him is preferable to my last 15 months of frequent visitation!