Chondrosarcoma – ah shit, bob's sick

We’re back. A fast and furious trip to Boston’s  Cambridge area, proved to be the most fun Sher, Alberic  and I have had in some time. It was totally awesome trip with so much packed in our short stay that parts of it are still unraveling in my memory.

We had a fantastic hotel room on the River Charles that overlooked both the river and parts of Boston skyline. That’s one of the things I love about Boston, it’s big enough to have the feel and all the great things cities have to offer,  yet small enough that traveling around it is easy and simple whether by car, train, bicycle, boat, foot, wheelchair or any other mode of transportation you can think of. It even has a Segway rental!

Now my last trips to Boston weren’t exactly filled with fun and joy by any means … but this one was different, I enjoyed this trip to the max. Alberic hasn’t had the chance to visit many cities and I think he really got a taste of what life can be like there and it’s many offerings, and Sher has been many times but not for a long time so she felt right at home.

Our primary goal was to attend Mike’s graduation at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).  Now if you don’t know anything about MIT, I suggest you Google it because it’s just too much to write about here.  I will say that it is one fantastic place, where our future is being designed by the worlds brightest students. Brilliant is probably a better description. I have a new found faith in the future … now if we could only stop warring.

This year, two thousand, five hundred and thirty-three students graduated in every field of science I’ve ever heard of and a few that were new to me.  That’s fifty times the amount of students in Alberic’s entire school!

Being disabled, I must say that we were very well taken care, and help was available from the moment we reached the grounds, right up until the moment we left. Everyone was so helpful and courteous that it was hard to imagine needing anything more.  To say the least, the entire experience was awesome.

That being said, I should mention here that living in the city of Boston appears to be much more friendly towards those with a disability, maybe the word is “disability-friendly”.  Almost everything appears to be set up for wheelchair access.  Basically, getting around this beautiful city in a wheelchair is a no-brainer. You can wheel anywhere you can walk … and Boston is a “walking city”. Everything is close and compact. I guess I’m sounding like a travel agent … but it’s true.

The graduation ceremony was simple awesome. Ray Stata gave the commencement speech and basically lit the entire place on fire! Not bad for a 75 year old.  If you’re not familiar with Ray Stata, Google him and read up. We wouldn’t have a tenth of the technology today without him. Below is a pic of the Stata Center in which Ray, his wife Maria, and Bill Gates have built on Massachusetts Avenue near MIT.

But there was much more to the ceremony then Ray Stata’s speech. The student president gave one of the most inspiring speeches I’ve ever heard, let alone from a young person, and really gave me hope for the future of humanity. If this is an example of the direction that MIT is taking its students, then I have all the faith in the world that mankind will solve all these problems that our world faces today.

There’s a lot more to write about this trip, and over this coming week I have lots of photos and stories to share, but that’s it for this evening.  We also went to the Museum of Science, had lot’s of great meals, and made plans to return.

Just a real quick note:

 We had a great weekend, along with perfect weather. We managed to get quite a bit done around the house, and a bit of entertainment time too! It was a much needed weekend. I even managed to catch up on some much needed sleep … and that was fantastic to say the least.

This week is going to be an exciting and busy week. Tuesday and Wednesday it’s work where we’ve been extremely busy, and then on Thursday we take off for Boston for a graduation at M.I.T. and a little bit of celebrating of Alberic’s twelfth birthday.  Hopefully with a trip to Boston’s Science Museum in there somewhere!

I’m feeling good, and looking forward to the trip to Boston. Hoping that getting around the city won’t be too difficult and this fantastic weather holds out for this coming week. Alberic is looking forward to seeing and being in some multi-story building. He’s always had an interest in city architecture, this’ll give him a chance to experience it!

Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to do a bit more writing before we hit road. I hope all you had a good holiday weekend too … and let’s all keep in mind what this holiday is all about.

Things are beginning to shape up. I plan to make a precise itinerary over the weekend sometime. At the moment, I plan on leaving for Beantown sometime late afternoon Monday to try and get a bit settled. The first prep work will be done Tuesday morning at 9:15am and everyday there-after. I’m not exactly sure where I’ll be staying the first week, but most probably in a small motel just outside the city.

Tomorrow at work I partake in 3 interviews for someone to replace me for at least the 3 months I’ll be gone. I feel good about that and am glad to see the company I work for finally getting down to doing this.

I’ve felt pretty well the last few days. Funny how that works though, the pains and nausea seems to come in waves and at random times. I can never tell when it’s going to hit or why. Something seems to trigger it and once it gets going, it seems to last for days and then subsides again. Really difficult to explain. I have noticed several new pain areas this past week or two. One of them seems to be right in the middle of my back, as if a vertebrate or something was damaged or is getting damaged. It’s definitely a bone thing as opposed to a muscular pain. Here’s the thing though, the muscle pains are fairly easy to deal with. You take a pain killer or two, and within half an hour or so they begin to lighten up. Bone pain is another matter, once that gets going there is no controlling it, or fighting it off with pain killers … you simply have to ride it out. Morphine helps a bit, but doesn’t come close to stopping it. I guess if you took enough it might, but I’m trying to remain functional too.

Another spot that has reared it’s head up in the pain department, are the two muscles on either side of my spine, about midway up my back. Damn they get sore. Laying down doesn’t seem to help, there is no comfortable position to be in.

My guess is that these deep bone pains are the pains of bone cancer. Although I have no way of really confirming that, except to say that they are not your typical “normal” type aches and pains. This is really the first of this I’ve experienced. I guess I should consider myself lucky in a sense.

Back to Beantown – So, for a start, I’m going to rent a room in a place called Watertown until Thursday. This way I can get my treatment done Friday morning and head back. Now let me tell you, Watertown is not an exciting place to be, however it is, perfectly located for what I want to do. It’s about 15-20 mins. outside the city, so the prices are reasonably affordable and it’s pretty quiet at night, so sleeping is not a problem. There are several little restaurants in the area that are open late, and most of them will deliver to the motels. So not too bad of a deal.

After that, I’ll be hopefully staying out on Nahant with a little helps from my friends!  Sounds like a plan … right?