Day 159, Year 11: Another Change
Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, Very Windy, Temp in the 40’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA
Oh, my! How flexible we have to be. This morning Mark talked to the scheduler for the drug trial and was told that he was to be at Mass General at 7 am tomorrow morning. Then at 4 pm he got another call telling him that the date for the initial interview and infusion will be on Friday morning, beginning at 7 am, not tomorrow. Another change. Normally a change like this wouldn’t be so bad, but since Justin and family are arriving here on Thursday and will only be here for five days, Granddad will now be at Mass General for one of those five days. But we will make the best of it. The infusion center is on the 8th floor of a building and many of the infusion rooms overlook the Charles River. On that same floor, there is a rooftop garden that is really lovely. And just a short walk over Beacon Hill is the Boston Commons. So Mark and I will leave here very early on Friday morning and then have JJZ&C drive in after rush hour. They can visit with Mark and enjoy the views of the Charles River, enjoy the Healing Garden and its fabulous views, have lunch on Charles Street, and enjoy the Boston Commons on a relatively warm spring day. They can then drive home BEFORE rush hour and Mark and I will follow when we can. We are determined to make the best of this change. We honestly don’t know how long we have to be at the hospital on Friday. The infusion will only take three hours. But the reason for the change was that the people who have to do the initial interview are not available tomorrow morning. So Mark will meet with them first thing on Friday. We don’t know what is involved in an initial interview and how long that will take. Then, because it is a trial, there will be testing during and for a few hours after the infusion. So for this one day each week, we will just take a good book and do a lot of reading while waiting for the ‘next’ thing. But for this first day, we just don’t know what to expect.
My day started very early this morning. I picked up my niece Lynn at 5 am and drove her to a transportation center north of Boston so she could catch the shuttle bus to Logan Airport. She had an 8:15 am flight to West Palm Beach to visit with her parents, Sue and Brad. There was very little traffic, so I was well on my way home by 5:45 when I realized I had forgotten to get the keys to Lynn’s car from her. She is loaning the car to Mark and I in her absence so that Justin and Jo can use our car while they are here. Like us, Lynn has a Honda Fit—great cars, but only five passengers can possible fit (no pun intended). I quickly called Lynn and she was on the shuttle. She said that when she arrived at the airport, she would wait at the departure area until I could get there in order to give me the key. I turned around as soon as I could and found that the inbound traffic was much heavier than it had been just 45 minutes earlier. But it really wasn’t too bad and I got to the airport by 6:30, got the key from Lynn, and started the trek home once again. Whew! Really glad I remembered the key when I did. Having the extra car is going to make things so much easier while Justin, Jo, and kids are here. Thank you, Lynn.
This evening my other niece that lives in this area, Candi, came over to deliver an inflatable bed for Justin and crew. Heather and Jed brought another one on Sunday, so tomorrow we will blow these up and make a wall-to-wall bed in the guest room. Candi also brought Mark a beautiful sailboat painting and a potted tulip. Our surroundings are now much improved. Thank you, Candi.
Since we were planning on being at Mass General all day tomorrow, this change now gives us a free day. Mark is still weak from the five days on the liquid diet, but he is rebounding. He took two short walks today and hopefully tomorrow we can increase the length of those walks and soak up some of the sunshine and warmer weather that is in the forecast.
