Wednesday, May 16, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2009 at the Mattie March. As many of our faithful followers know, the Foundation is upholding a tradition that Team Mattie (our care community) established, which is a Walk to raise money in the spring. In 2009, the money raised by Team Mattie went to Mattie's treatment, now of course it goes to Mattie's Foundation. In this picture, Mattie was posing with two of my undergraduate students at the George Washington University, Ariel and Tess. Ariel and I are still in close contact. Ariel is a faithful blog reader, and to some extent Mattie's story inspired her to become a pediatric nurse. Ariel went to nursing school and is now working at her first job in a large, well known hospital in New York City as a pediatric nurse. Ariel is a beautiful example of how Mattie's life and experience touched a young mind and heart. In fact, though Ariel is not geographically close to me, she contributed items by mail to Mattie's 10th birthday drive. That kind gesture speaks volumes about her.
Quote of the day: It is the shelter of each other that the people live. ~ Irish Proverb
I was hit with what I imagine was a very intense migraine yesterday afternoon. I couldn't eat, had nausea, and just kept vomiting throughout the day and night. Along with a violent headache! I did not sleep at all last night, because when you are sick to your stomach it is impossible to get comfortable. This morning at 6am, I decided to take zofran. In caring for Mattie I have become savvy enough to know what needs to be done medically or at least know how to get the help I need to achieve an outcome. When Peter was ill months ago, I had the doctor prescribe things for nausea. One of the drugs was zofran, a drug Mattie took when undergoing chemotherapy. Unfortunately for Mattie this drug did nothing for him, and we had to move onto something stronger. But needless to say I have a supply of zofran in our home. I was desperate this morning, and took it. That was a great decision because otherwise, it would have been impossible for my body to break this vicious cycle I was under.
I continued working but only from home today. I did NO running around, which was great because I wasn't physically up to it. Especially with no sleep and loopy from zofran. We are counting down until the Walk now, not in months or weeks, but DAYS! Though some of our signs at the walk are printed and laminated, many others are created by children and teens. I would like to share three with you tonight.
This evening Debbie, one of our children's activity coordinators at the Walk, sent me these wonderful pictures. Debbie has been very active with the Foundation since its inception and we work very well together because Debbie is very organized and into details. I gravitate to people like this because to me details are important and make the difference between an event that looks slapped together and one that is well thought out and planned. Debbie's daughters had a group of girls over today creating signs for our Walk. As you can see the girls are busy creating and I have no doubt when they are done, the signs will be colorful and capture your attention. Since the Walk is designed to raise money for children fighting cancer, I think it is very meaningful that children and teens are actively participating. 
Another sign station at Debbie's house. 
This is Eliza. She is the same age as Mattie and is in fourth grade. The same grade Mattie would have been in. Eliza is part of the sign making team today and as you can see is holding up a wonderful cupcake sign. We are very grateful to Georgetown Cupcake who donated 120 cupcakes to our event and of course we are very grateful to these girls who have taken time from their busy schedules and from homework to help the Foundation in this way!
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