Two active days

Rachael and Michelle holding presents from their dad, and the five of us having our first courses.

Dear Family and Friends,

Today is Rachael and Michelle's birthday, 25 years ago. Their loving dad took the photos two days ago, the closest we could get to celebrate the actual birth date. With the advantages of cell phones, we managed to meet in front of the Museum of Natural History. Our plan had been for me to wait there while Merwin went into the Park to see if he could snag Senior tickets for that night to see Winter's Tale. Three tries last summer yielded me nothing, but I figured that since it was early in the season and the weather forecast was iffy, we might be lucky, and we were. The rest of the outing was fortuitous, negotiated by heavy use of cell phones. Harvey had had a meeting in the a.m. in New York and was finished early enough to plan for lunch. I told him to meet me in front of the Museum. He in the meantime contacted his daughters who live in NYC and they were both able to join us. A few clicks of his iPhone yielded the name of the restaurant where we had lunch. The second photo above shows us at Ocean Grill. Merwin had snagged the tickets and met us in due course.

My plan had been to wait for Merwin at the Museum and then spend an hour or so there. But after lunch, since it was clear that we both needed a rest, Merwin and I left the others and went to our apartment. Our lunch was so ample and so late that we didn't need dinner. We packed pillows to sit on and jackets in case of rain. It sprinkled briefly but was not a problem. It's always fun to see Shakespeare in the Park, but the performance was not as wonderful as I always hope for in that play, for which I have a special affection. Laury and her son David took a chance on driving in from Long Island, and they were able to get tickets at the last minute. With Al Pacino playing Shylock in the the other play in repertoire, it won't be easy to get tickets for that, but we don't care to see another Merchant of Venice. And so we've had our Shakespeare-in-the-Park experience.

I had a couple of tests of my endurance that evening. First, on entering the Park to go to the theater, we encountered hundreds of runners, in close formation, blocking our way. We got lost and wandered until we finally found the right path. Then after negotiating the dark paths out of the Park, and walking down 4 flights of stairs to get to the South-bound B train,we waited in vain for it to arrive. When every one of the about 100 people on the platform got on the A train, leaving us alone on the platform, we realized we had made a mistake. An arriving person told us that the B train does not run after 1o:oo p.m. We should have taken the A to 59 and picked up the D there. Like the B, the D stops at the closest point to our apartment. So we walked up the 4 flights of stairs and took a cab. I think I did more walking this day than I have done since the broken pelvis.

Is it any wonder that I was tired? But the next morning, I had energy enough to do our wash in the laundry room and to get some coffee in a shop open early. I think I was there at about 6 a.m. I decided to make baked eggs and cheese for breakfast, because we needed to use the eggs in the fridge, there since before my fall in March, and we had that for breakfast as well as cold, in a roll, for lunch. We ate the latter at Mount Sinai in a pleasant cafe. Our visit to Dr. Mascarenhas was complicated by the fact that two doctors from the recently closed St. Vincent's Cancer Care Center had joined the staff at Mt. Sinai, and there weren't enough examining rooms to accommodate everyone at once, but at last, we saw Dr. M, and Amy, the physician's assistant, who explained everything to us. I had hoped to go with Merwin to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was on our way home by bus, but by the time we were finished there I couldn't do it, so we went directly to Penn Station. As it was, we didn't get home till after 6 p.m., and by that time I was wiped out. I did make a fairly satisfactory supper with Merwin's help, but after that it was straight to bed. I took the first 7 of the CEP701 pills (I am to take 14-a day, after meals) without any difficulty. Fortunately, big pills don't faze me.

I had a terrible night that makes me wonder if I am going to be able to tolerate this medicine.—if indeed it was the cause of my malaise. If it works it will reduce my spleen size, reduce or even eliminate itching (which was pretty bad yesterday even after multiple anti-histamine tablets), and perhaps stabilize the myelo-fibrosis. Nothing very dramatic, in other words, but my bid to help myself and science.

At the risk of seeming immodest, I have to report that Dr. M remarked again, as he had last week, about my special glow, the inner joy that is the essence of my personality, which bodes well for whatever little measure of success the CEP701 affords.

More soon,
Much love to all, but especially to my dear twin granddaughters on their birthday and my generous son Harvey, and all my friends and family who keep that glow burning.

Bernice