by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 240, Year 9: Super Summer Day
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Weather: Sunny and Hot
Location: At Home with Bruce and Jane Woodin, Falmouth, MA
Not sure what caused it, but today was a super summer day with temps in the upper 80’s. Tomorrow the high will be back down in the 60’s, so it was important to enjoy this day. Despite a sleepless night fighting this stomach bug that is circulating, I was up early and off to Heather and Jed’s to provide childcare for Jonah and Ollie. I certainly wasn’t feeling up to par and just couldn’t eat anything, but I made it through the day just fine. Early in the day Jonah decided he wanted to get out the plastic water slide and he and Ollie had a great time sliding and keeping cool. Ollie was ready for nap earlier today than usual, so we put the sliding on hold until later in the day, had lunch, and nap/rest time. Since I hadn’t slept more than two hours during the night, I actually laid down while Jonah read books. Later in the afternoon, after we had picked Sam up from school, the boys enjoyed another round of water slide fun. We did our best to enjoy the warm day.
Mark continues to progress just a bit more each day. He wants to eat, but the no fat diet continues to provide a challenge. But he is allowed to eat green vegetables now, so that broadens the dimension of possibilities. Late tomorrow morning, Jonah, Ollie, and I will come to pick Mark up and take him out to Windbird. We desperately need to charge the batteries. So if it is calm enough, I will take him out and leave him on Windbird for the afternoon. We’ll return after Sam gets out of school to pick him up.
by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 239, Year 9: Mark Steadily Improving
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Location: At Home with Bruce and Jane Woodin, Falmouth, MA
Mark is steadily improving. He is starting to eat more, is cutting back on the pain meds, and has a bit more energy. So we’ll just hope this trend continues.
I headed out early this morning to go to Heather’s to take care of Ollie and Jonah. Before I left we got a text message from Detta saying she had the stomach bug that Ollie had on Sunday and when I got to Heather and Jed’s, I found Heather had been sick all night long. I stayed the day with Ollie and Jonah so Heather could get some rest, but I’m sure hoping that I won’t bring this bug home to Mark. If it happens, we’ll deal. In the meantime, I just hope Detta and Heather recover enough to be able to go to work tomorrow. Detta is a first grade teacher and has only two more days of school and Heather has to be in Boston on Thursday and then flies to Florida to do ‘underwater’ interviews over the weekend. It is a busy enough time when you are feeling great, but dealing with this stomach bug is just more than anyone needs. So bug, bug, go away, and don’t come back another day!
by Judy Handley | Jun 16, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 238, Year 9: From Greenland, NH to Falmouth, MA
Date: Monday, June 16, 2014
Weather: Felt Like Summer
Location: At Home with Bruce and Jane Woodin, Falmouth, MA
On this beautiful summery day we traveled from Greenland, New Hampshire back to Falmouth, Massachusetts—but we didn’t move back aboard Windbird. We are going to wait a few more days to give Mark more time to recover on stable ground. In the meantime, we are staying with friends, Bruce and Jane Woodin. Mark is making slow, but steady progress. He does not have a fever, the drainage from the surgical site has all but stopped, and he is generally feeling better—not perfect, but good enough.
We are so lucky to have friends with homes in such peaceful settings—perfect for recovery from surgery. And we are so very grateful for their hospitality. Once we moved all our things into Bruce and Jane’s late this afternoon, I drove to Quissett to check on Windbird. The sun and wind have kept the refrigerator and freezer running for the past week when I was here last, but just barely. I stayed for an hour tonight to run the engine to charge the batteries a bit, but I will have to return and do this a little each day to get the charge back to normal. It was great to be back aboard Windbird, but I’ll have to be content with short visits for another week.
by Judy Handley | Jun 15, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 237, Year 9: Happy Father’s Day
Date: Sunday, June 15, 2014
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: At “Porat’s by the Bay” in Greenland, NH
Happy Father’s Day to all of my favorite fathers. At the top of the list are Mark, Justin, and Jed, the father of my children and the fathers of my grandchildren. I was with Mark and Jed today and we talked to Justin, so I think I can say that all three had a great day. Mark is better, sooooooo much better. When I wrote last night’s log, I didn’t realize that Mark’s fever had broken. When I got home from my niece’s birthday celebration last night, Mark was chilling and was very shaky. Detta felt his head and thought he felt clammy like his fever had broken. And as the night went on, I realized she was right on. From that point on his temperature has been hovering around 98.6 and he is feeling better with each hour. The best sign is that he is hungry and wants to eat. So hurray, hurray!
Heather, Jed, and boys came to spend the afternoon with Mark. Unfortunately Ollie developed a stomach bug while here and spent his afternoon throwing up. No fun at all. But Jed, Sam, and Jonah went out on Tom and Detta’s boat with them and their daughter Sarah and had a great time. Granddad walked and talked with his boys and his daughter and truly enjoyed his day. Justin called and was excited that he was putting up their new tent today. So it was just a good day all around.
by Judy Handley | Jun 14, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 236, Year 9: Busy Day
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2014
Weather: Overcast and Warm; Clearing in the Evening
Location: At “Porat’s by the Bay” in Greenland, NH
Before I talk about the busy day, I’ll report that Mark still has a temperature that varies from 99 to 101, but he felt much better tonight than he did this morning. It’s hard to tell at this point if this is a true step in the right direction or just another ‘up’ in this up and down recovery. But he had a great afternoon and we’ll hope he can do the same tomorrow.
At the beginning of my day, I looked out the glass doors to the bay and saw heron walking on the rocks jutting out of the water just off-shore. It was that foggy kind of morning with very still water that is so very serene. So for a bit I just enjoyed the view and then I had to get my camera to try and capture the heron and her reflection in the water. At the end of my day I enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Great Bay. Tom and Detta live on a point of land that just has gorgeous views. In between the heron and the sunset, we had a very busy day. In the early morning we dealt with the fact that Mark felt just awful and his temperature had gone up from what it had been overnight. We called Mass General and waited for the resident surgeon on call to get back to us. In the meantime, we decided that maybe a walk would help Mark so even though he felt terrible, out we went. And it worked. As we got back to the house Mark said he felt more energetic. The doctor called at about the same time so the report to him reflected that. His advice was to come on in to Mass General if it would make us feel more comfortable or wait and come if and when anything gets worse. As soon as we got off the phone we took Mark’s temperature. It had gone down two degrees after taking the walk, so we opted to stay put and see what happens. Mark felt relatively good for the remainder of the day and probably engaged in too much activity, so there was a bit of a backslide in the late evening. But generally everything is stable for now.
Heather and Jed came to visit in the afternoon with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. Mark was able to go out and walk down to the water with the boys and sit out on the deck and visit. He was so happy to see Heather and Jed and those three beautiful little boys. The boys loved it here. They went down to the water in the hopes of seeing horseshoe crabs who come close to shore at this time of the year to lay their eggs. I got to see them earlier in the afternoon, but the tide was too high by the time they arrived. But they just enjoyed frolicking by the water, slapping the rocks with sticks, and throwing rocks into the water. The visit was short as they were going to have dinner with friends and I was going to my niece’s 60th birthday dinner just across the border in Kittery, Maine. Heather, Jed, and the boys are spending the night at a hotel in the Portsmouth area and will return here tomorrow to celebrate Father’s Day. So we are looking forward to that. And I had a wonderful time at the birthday dinner. My niece Lynn was born in June just after my first grade year. She was the first of nine nieces and nephews and being able to attend her 60th celebration was very special. Happy birthday, Lynn!
After the day was over and I stopped to write this log, I also checked my email. We had received an email earlier in the evening from our good friend Helaine Kanegsberg. Her father who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on July 23 suddenly passed away this morning. We are heart-broken for Helaine, but at least she has the peace of knowing he went quickly with no period of suffering. For that we can be thankful. Our hearts are with you, Alan and Helaine.
by Judy Handley | Jun 12, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 234, Year 9: Tiny Steps
Date: Thursday, June 12, 2014
Weather: Overcast and Sometimes Misty
Location: At “Porat’s by the Bay” in Greenland, NH
Mark said tonight, “I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up when this is over.” You know when Mark says that he is not having any fun. He really is improving, but from his prospective that is hard to tell. But tiny steps in the right direction are being made. He looks better, can eat just a little more, and is starting to enjoy reading the news on his tablet. He found a short video advertising the World Cup on our daughter’s Facebook and had us all laughing. He is still has a lot of pain and needs to continue taking pain medication. By the end of the evening, the fluid in the drain had changed color again and was just half of the volume it has been. So the no fat diet must be working.
We got a call from the doctor this morning and she was able to answer some of our questions. Our first question was very basic. Is this lymphatic leak what is called a chyle fistula leak? That is what we had determined from our internet research and Dr. Ferrone validated that. We also found out that the drain was put in at the time of the surgery because they suspected this could happen due to the location of the mass they removed. Why they didn’t tell us all of this we don’t know. I guess it is because we didn’t know enough to ask and the color change didn’t happen until the morning Mark was released. And we didn’t see Dr. Ferrone that day. We did see a resident, but we didn’t know what to ask and he offered no information. Anyway, no need to dwell on that. We now know that this type of leak can happen when a part of the lymphatic system is traumatized. It is rare and the first thing you try to do to stop the leak is to go on a no fat diet. This is because chyle is a milky fluid containing lymph and fat. The lymph contains nutrients like protein, salts, and sugar. The chyle contains fat. Remove fat in the diet and the body makes less chyle. With less chyle, the hope is that the leak will repair itself. So let’s hope that is what is happening.
