Here's to the Staff of the Group Health Infusion Center

Tomorrow will be my last oncology visit with Group Health. After tomorrow's appointment I go on vacation for a bit, and then come back to immediately choose another cancer care center.

If all goes as planned, I'll likely get a short infusion of Avastin, and then get sent to the pharmacy to pick up the new pill-based chemo. So tomorrow's should be a fairly quick trip through the infusion center.

So before I forget, I want to acknowledge all the women -- and it was only women -- in the infusion center who took care of me over the past six months. There were a couple of different receptionists, and about half a dozen nurses, and a few others whose roles I'm not sure of. To a person, they were all incredibly professional, helpful and terribly good at their jobs. 

Most of my time was spent with the nurses, which could be entertaining as they all had very different styles of providing care. But while the approaches might have differed, the underlying commitment to providing the best care possible, and making the experience as easy as possible, was universal. 

Chemo sucks, and there's not much even the best nurse can do to change that fact, but they all did their very best to make it as tolerable as possible. And in their own ways, they were each as compassionate as one could hope people working in that kind of environment could be. 

So here's the nurses and the rest of the staff in the infusion center at the Group Health Medical Center on Capitol Hill, with thanks for all they did for me.