Blog

Rachel is too sick to go to camp and I feel bad to leave her, but Jamie and my parents will watch over her and hopefully she will feel good enough tomorrow to resume her normally scheduled program.

Right before Jon and I are about to leave New York to travel to Boston, I got the call…”Heidi, Proton is down today, you’ll have to go to Photon at 4P”. I’m not thrilled about this (I was looking forward to having my second to last Proton session, and then putting that part of radiation behind me), but at least the appointment is only a half hour earlier than my originally scheduled 4:30P Proton…so no big hiccup in the travel plans.

We arrive in Boston at around 2:45…too early to check into the “fabulous” MGH Beacon House and still make it back down the hill for my appointment; we instead opt to park our car and check out the truly fabulous MGH cafeteria. This is no joke, a better hospital cafeteria I’ve never seen, perhaps not a better cafeteria period, except maybe the one at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Been there? If you have, you know what I mean. We’re talking goodness…anything a person might want foodwise…is here. I opt just for a delicious Berry Smoothie, and Jon has a fruit salad…which is unfortunate…one should really come with a bigger appetite than either of us had at that moment.

We pass the time, and an hour later we walk over to Photon. If I didn’t mention it before, Photon is the radiation that creates a firewall around my tumor. Its intention is to kill any stray cancerous tumor cells that may have moved into normal tissue around the tumor itself. I don’t think it’s my imagination, but I generally feel worse after Photon sessions…more tired, more dizzy, more sick…but I tell myself…after this one I only have three more Photon sessions left, and this makes me feels a bit better.

Afterward, we check into Beacon House. Jon has experienced this fine establishment once before, but does’t really remember it that well (we were only in the room for about 8 hours when we/he stayed here the last time). We are greeted by both resident dogs, Snowball (I call this dog Meatball), he is a rather rotund all white chihuahua, and Kenya, a very friendly Cockapoo. It’s nice having dogs around…feels more like home. We check into our room, and Jon thinks that my description of the room does not disappoint.