Day 293, Year 11: Day Trip to Boston
Date: Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Humid, Some Rain; High Temp in the 80’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Our trip to Boston today was for a medical appointment for me, not for Mark, for a change. I have this aggravating condition called hammer toes where the big toe on each foot is ‘leaning’ toward the second toe so that they overlap. When I thought Mark would be going to treatment in Boston on Wednesdays through the summer, I made today’s appointment with the podiatry department at Mass General. Now that Mark is no longer going to Mass General for the trial treatment, I hated to drive all that way for my appointment. But Mark insisted. Unfortunately, the podiatrist was not that helpful. I had learned most of what he told me by searching online, but what I did find out was that he would not recommend surgery until the condition is so bad that I am crawling, not walking. I am nowhere close to that, so I will just continue as is. The doctor was helpful in giving me a list of recommended places to shop for the best shoes to wear and he showed me a new way to literally tape my second toe in place. His way is much better than the way I have been doing it. Not sure this was worth the drive to Boston, but at least I now know that I don’t need to think about surgery.
Mark did not have a good day today, but I insisted on taking him shopping for shoes for himself on the way home from Boston. We drove to out of our way to go to an outlet mall to search for both sandals and new sneakers for him. He has lost a lot of the feeling in his feet due to neuropathy caused by his chemo treatments. And both his currant sandals and sneakers are old and worn. The heels of his shoes are so worn down and I have been constantly afraid that he was going to trip and fall. So we did some looking around and ended up buying the most expensive sandals and the most expensive running shoes we could find. That was not our goal. In fact, it was the opposite. But it became very obvious in our search that what he needed was not going to be cheap. At least what we got was cheaper than it would have been in a retail store. I’ll shop for shoes for me later as it was obvious that Mark did not have the energy to continue today.
Tomorrow is another day off Camp Oma. I will go with Mark to talk to his oncologist here on the Cape, Dr. Aviles. We will discuss Mark’s next treatment, Folfox, which is slated to begin in the next few days. Folfox is the first chemotherapy that Mark received in the spring of 2012. Dr. Kwak in Boston told Mark that he should probably know if the regimen is effective after the first couple of treatments. We’ll listen to what Dr. Aviles has to say tomorrow and then launch into this treatment. Mark’s cancer is advancing quickly, so hopefully the Folfox will slow down the growth.
