Day 266, Year 7: Stuck in Boston
Date: Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Weather: Partly Sunny
Location: Sue and John Reed’s Home, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Some days are better than others. Yesterday was a gold medal day for us
with the birth of Coco, but today we didn’t make the medal stand. The first
thing that took us back a bit was the meeting with Mark’s oncologist, Dr.
Kwak. We had hoped to get a clean bill of health for Mark, but what we got
was just a bit of caution. The CT scan from yesterday showed that
everything in the gastrointestinal area looks great, but there is a lymph
node on his trachea that was marked to be watched. Dr. Kwak could see no
real problems, but the radiology report noted the caution. The reason we
decided to have the scans done at Mass General rather than anywhere else is
their reputation for being able to catch problems before they get a chance
to develop. So this caution makes the CT scans every three months a must.
We just have to make VERY flexible future plans that include trips to Boston
every three months.
But this doesn’t explain the “stuck in Boston” name on this log. That came
next. We were driving back to Cambridge after the appointment at Mass
General to make sure we had Sue and John’s alarm system set properly. We
had some difficulty with it when we left in the morning and didn’t want to
leave town until we were sure it was right. On the way there we saw steam
rising from the hood of the car. Oh, no. When we paid the $1700 on
Saturday for the power steering work, we were told that we should watch for
a leak in the heating system. Evidently the metal tubing looked very shaky.
Well, it was and today it was leaking like a sieve. We called the garage in
Falmouth and were told to go buy gallons of water and keep putting it in.
We did that but realized that the dripping leak was starting to stream. We
called Heather to get the name of the garage she used to use when she lived
in Boston. We called that garage and after a referral to another and then
another, we found a garage that hopefully can solve our problem. The metal
tubing, called ‘the octopus’ by the mechanics, is a Canadian product and can
be delivered tomorrow afternoon. But it will be Thursday before the car
will be ready. So we are stuck in Boston. I guess the ‘glass half full’
view is that we have a place to stay within easy walking distance to great
restaurants AND we can watch the Olympics. So we’ll take that view and
enjoy the time.
