Life After Windbird, Day 6: Doctor Day
Date: Thursday, August 18, 2016
Weather: Warm and Breezy, Not As Humid; High Temp 86 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
I was with the Goldpebbles this morning, watching Olympics and playing Olympics sports in the yard. We had a couple of neighborhood kids join in and that made it all the more fun for all, but after lunch they left the Olympic theme and decided a water slide in the backyard was more appropriate for the sunny, hot afternoon. About that time, Heather came home and I headed to get Mark so we could go for our yearly physicals with our new primary care physician. It is a little more than a 30 minute drive from here to his office and after the ‘appropriate’ wait time, we each met with a doctor’s assistant to do the routine checks and update of our basic information. I then met with the Dr. Ahmed first and got confirmation of a clean bill of health. He then invited me to join him with Mark to discuss future care issues. He recommended that Mark start receiving palliative care from the VNA (Visiting Nurses Association). Dr. Ahmed wants to see Mark once a month, but he wants someone checking in on him weekly and a visiting nurse will do that. We are hopeful that the immunotherapy that begins tomorrow is going to turn things around, but it will be weeks before we see any positive impact. In the meantime, Dr. Ahmed made it very clear that we need to do whatever we can to keep Mark’s weight stable, keep him exercising, and at the same time, keep him comfortable. Dr. Ahmed had a new recommendation for pain management, so we will follow his new plan and hope it works. But all of this means that Mark is not going to be traveling far from home in the next few weeks. We had so hoped to fly to South Carolina to meet Windbird’s new owners and do a proper introduction. But that is not going to happen.
Tomorrow morning, the Goldpebbles and I will drop Mark off at the infusion center and the kids and I will head to the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich. Tomorrow they are having a ‘swashbuckling day’ focused on pirates. We hope to get there in time to participate in an 11 am music presentation. We will then have fun at the museum until 2 pm when there is a puppet presentation: The Pirate, the Princess, and the Pea. Doing this means that we will drop Mark off a little early for his infusion and then good friend Bruce Woodin will pick him up and take him home. Thank you, Woodins!
