Day 98, Year 7: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Weather: Partly Sunny with Warmer Temps in the 30’s
Location: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

We hope all of you had a loving Valentine’s Day and we certainly send our love your way.

Mark was released from Mass General this afternoon, and after a shopping spree in Cambridge, we arrived at Sue and John Reed’s home at 5 pm. We had decided to spend the extra night in Boston to make sure everything is fine before heading home tomorrow morning. And staying over gave us the opportunity to have a special Valentine’s dinner with Sue and John. We didn’t know that February 14 is their anniversary, but we knew when the champagne bottle came out that it was a special occasion. We had artichokes, beef roast, and potatoes for dinner with strawberries and cream with chocolate truffles and mini-meringues for dessert. Yummy. Our pre-dinner shopping spree was totally functional, nothing fancy. We got Mark’s antibiotic prescription filled, bought ceramic-lined skillets to allow us to cook with less oil, and spent time in a book store just browsing.

Mark had a Power Port installed in his upper chest today. This required sedation as they go in through the juggler vein in the neck to stall the thing. This device allows the chemotherapy drugs to enter the body and also has the ability to allow power-injected Contrast-Enhance Compute Tomography (CECT) scans. The Power Port is a little different from what we were expecting, so both Mark and I have to study this thing to understand exactly how it works. But all is well here and we head home to the Cape tomorrow morning.

I have to end on a sad note–not a happy ending for Valentine’s Day. My nephew Todd’s father-in-law died today after a long battle with cancer. The death was expected, but the timing was not good. Todd and Shelley had just gotten home from the memorial services for my sister-in-law Conda and I know they are devastated to think of their little ones having to lose their only living grandparents within days of each other. Our thoughts are with Todd, Shelley, Ashlyn, Kaelin, and Kyler, as well as the greater family.