Last hospital bracelet?

I had to drive to Houston one more time on Thursday morning.  The HALT-MS study period (5 years) ended a year ago, but my oncologist, Dr. Popat wanted to see me again.  So after taking Brigham back from cross country practice, I got back in the van and headed out on 290 toward Houston.
I've come to associate that drive into Houston with major anxiety, and I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I was able to keep myself mostly distracted, and it wasn't too bad.  It helped that the only evaluation I would undergo was a blood test.
And it was fine.  The only difficulty was driving through a blinding rainstorm a few miles before Brenham, and then the usual horrendous traffic getting out of Houston in the afternoon.  Houston has the worst traffic of any city I've lived in.
After getting my blood drawn at the fast track lab, my blood counts came back all mostly normal.  All the important ones were in the normal range, anyway.  I got to wait for an hour and 20 minutes past my appointment time to see Dr. Popat, which is pretty normal for his office, but he is such a nice person, it's hard to hold it against him.
I still do not like going to that hospital.  It is too sad and I hate the aura of  "patient" that immediately descends upon me when I go through those doors.  Maybe this will be the last time I ever have to go there?  I guess I'll see if Dr. Popat wants to see me again next year.  It is pretty nice that he wants to keep track of me even after the study is done.  And he mentioned my Christmas cards, so I guess I'll keep sending those.
It's hard to believe that all of that happened 6 years ago.  At the time, I remember thinking how unbelievable it would be to have 12 year olds by the end of the study.  And now I have 13 year olds!  Time marches on, I guess, and I'm mostly glad about that.  .