Patience Is A Virtue

• I will not get upset if I get singled out for special security precautions at the airport and they decide to unpack all my luggage.
• I will not get upset if the doors jam and won't open on the monorail in Houston that we need to take to make our connecting flight.
• I will not get upset if our connecting flight gets cancelled and we have to wait an extra two hours.
• I will remember that the time in Houston is two hours ahead of San Diego time.
• I will not get upset if we wait 1 1/2 hours at the airport in Memphis for all the arriving patients so that the bus driver won't have to make two trips.
• I will not get upset if the shuttle bus driver puts more people in the van than it accomodates.
• I will not get upset if the wait for the shuttle bus makes me miss dinner at the cafeteria and we don't have a car to go anywhere else.
• I will not get upset if we can't find a car to rent that doesn't reek of cigarette smoke.
• I will not get upset if I stand at the end of the line for breakfast in the St. Jude cafeteria for 15 minutes and when I finally get up to the front, the woman working behind the counter decides not to serve me because it's 10:01 am and they stop serving breakfast at 10:00 am.
• I will not get upset if we have appointments scheduled starting at 7:30 am and scheduling delays prevent us from finishing up until 9:00 pm.
• I will not get upset if our appointment schedule is changed from one day to the next without telling us.
• I will not get upset if we get up at 5:00 am (3:00 am Pacific time) for an MRI and we wait two hours and the doctor who is supposed to administer it never shows up.
• I will not get upset if the missed MRI gets scheduled at a time that prevents us from eating dinner.
• I will not get upset about Steven being scheduled for a spinal MRI and lumbar puncture that he wasn't supposed to have this visit.
• I will not get upset about our visit being scheduled to be two days longer than it needs to be to accomodate the appointments that Steven wasn't supposed to have.
• I will sleep well at the Grizzlies House.
• I will stay strong and calm for Steven, Doug and Sean.

Can you tell we're getting ready to leave for Memphis?

The only thing that really matters is a clean MRI, the rest is small potatoes.

Despite the scheduling snafus, St. Jude takes good care of us. The travel adventures aren't their fault. Doug and Sean are coming on Monday and they'll be there for Tuesday's MRI.

And I'm working hard on that patience thing...

- Kathleen