Day 101, Year 7: Successful Day Trip to Boston
Date: Friday, February 17, 2012
Weather: Drizzle Early, Sunny Afternoon, Temps in the 40’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Today was a success on all counts. We picked Sam and Jonah up early this morning and headed to Boston. I dropped Mark off at Mass General for his appointment with the urologist and then Sam, Jonah, and I drove to the Museum of Science which is just a stone’s throw from the hospital. It was a perfect day to visit the museum as there were very few big school groups there. The museum wasn’t empty, but there were fewer people there than any time I have ever visited and that made for a nice, relaxed day.
Mark’s visit to the urologist wasn’t particularly nice and relaxing, but it was successful. The catheter that was inserted after the surgery on Monday was removed. The question was, “Would Mark be able to urinate normally without the use of a catheter.” And the answer is . . . he could!!! They had him drink lots of water and stay around the hospital for an hour or so, go to the bathroom, and then they did an ultrasound to see how much liquid was being retained in the bladder. Then he walked to the Museum and toured the gecko exhibit with us. We all had lunch together and then he walked back to the hospital for a repeat performance. They did another ultrasound and then proclaimed the procedure a success. He will still have to self-catheterize once every day or two to make sure there is no retention in the bladder, but otherwise things seem to be working normally. I’m much more cautious than Mark. He’s declaring an out and out success. I’m so glad things are working but I’ll have to watch how things go over the next few weeks before making such a declaration. But so far, so good.
The gecko exhibit was fabulous. I got to see the leaf-tailed gecko that we didn’t see in the wild in Madagascar and it was just as other-worldly as I suspected. Sam and Jonah loved the Museum’s Discovery Room where Sam assembled the bones of a dinosaur with a Museum volunteer while Jonah and I went deep sea diving. We walked through a butterfly garden, watched bees at work in a giant display hive, walked up and down the magical musical stairs, saw space capsules and dinosaur exhibits, and even got to see a visiting 3-D printer make a castle. Sam and Jonah were so well behaved and seemed to really enjoy the day, so it was also a success.
Tomorrow was going to be a day of rest, but Heather invited us to go with them to the outer Cape in the hopes of seeing Right Whales swimming close to shore. They have been doing this in the past couple of weeks, so we will head out early and see what we can see. There are fewer than 500 North Atlantic Right Whales left, making them the most endangered large whales and one of the rarest mammals on earth. They have been swimming incredibly close to shore in the Cape Cod Bay so we are going to drive out and see what we can see.
 |
| 120217 Day 101a Cape Cod, USA–Museum of Science |
 |
| 120217 Day 101b Cape Cod, USA–Geckos |
