Wednesday, February 28, 2013Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. There was a story behind this photo.... NATURALLY!!! In many ways Mattie had old fashioned interests. He preferred imaginative play, playing with cars, trains, planes, Legos, and creating all sorts of things! Mattie had little to NO interest in video games or playing glued to an electronic device. But one particular day, Mattie was in the childlife playroom with Katie (his wonderful nurse) and Peter. Katie, Peter, and Mattie had a Wii competition and it involved doing yoga positions. The irony was despite Mattie having three prosthetic limbs he could balance himself better than others. Katie was amazed that she snapped this photo of him to show me!
Quote of the day: To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. ~ Emily Dickinson
It is that time of year in which I need to start to begin filing permits with the City of Alexandria in order for us to host our Foundation Walk. There are two rounds of permits and I completed the first round before I left for the conference in Huntington Beach. When I returned I received an email from the director of special events. She wanted to set up a meeting for me to go before a board of Alexandria Police, Fire, and Paramedics. I knew that wasn't a good sign and that meant that the City of Alexandria had issues with my desire to close down neighborhood streets in order to have an awareness walk. Typically our Walks have been self-contained on Mattie's school campus. They have been that way since 2009. But many of our supporters have expressed an interest in a 5k or fun run/walk. So eventually this will be a concept we will migrate to, but it won't be this year. Shutting down streets is VERY costly because it requires that police, fire, and paramedics are on hand, and in essence we would be paying their salaries during such an event. There is no way I can see spending thousands of dollars on this, money that should be going to helping children and their families with cancer.
So today I had an hour long discussion with the director of permits for special events. Now that I agreed not to shut down streets, I have made it through the first hurdle of permits. Apparently only LARGER organizations have the ability to shut down streets because of the cost! So now onto the second round of permits. But I admit this leaves me having to revamp the plans I had in mind for this year. I can't say I am happy about this at all, and when tired my creativity isn't as forthcoming.
As for Patches, she is refusing her cat food now. She is more interested in people food. Which is absolutely novel for her. However, she won't eat something more than once, nor will she eat it from a plate. She prefers for me to feed her a piece at a time from my hand. Which I don't mind as long as she keeps on eating and drinking. I find looking at her right eye painful and I continue to assess her for pain. She isn't acting like she is in pain, other than her lack of appetite. Watching Patches drift away is very hard for us. She is my day time companion and has been through so much with us. I will never forget when Mattie was a baby. He did a lot of crying at all hours of the day and night. On the rare occasion when Mattie was sleeping, Patches would emerge from hiding and look at me, not for attention interestingly enough, she seemed to know I was wiped out, but I almost felt she came out to simply be there and check on me. She is my ultimate Nurse Patches!
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