Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2007. We took Mattie that weekend to Glen Echo Park in Maryland. They have a lovely Dentzel Carousel which Mattie always enjoyed, especially picking out which animal he was going to ride. Typically we took Mattie to see a puppet show at the Park, followed by the Carousel. The puppet company in the Park is incredible as the theater designs their own marionettes and does a memorable performance for kids and adults! I just love Mattie's smile in this photo!
Quote of the day: People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
After two weeks of rain and grayness, the sun came out today! Of course now as I am typing this, we are having a major rain storm. It was glorious to be outside today with Sunny. Unfortunately Sunny cut the bottom of his paw pad the other day. I took him to the vet and she feels it will heal on its own. But she cleaned out his paw and has him on antibiotics. Sore paw on all, this boy loves his walks. He hobbles a bit, but you can't keep a good boy down.
I had a follow up visit with my physical therapist today. She feels that by Friday I will know if the cortisone will work for me or not. The hope is it will, and that if we can keep the inflammation in my hip socket at bay, that I could potentially live with a torn labrum. But if the cortisone doesn't work in three days, then we know I have an issue that only surgery will repair. So I take it one day at a time and religiously do my exercises at home.
Peter and I are headed to Dallas, TX on Sunday. We have been invited to attend a training called Bright IDEAS. One of our researchers developed this intervention which is being offered to parents caring for a child with cancer. The goal being.... to improve problem solving skills and thereby reduce parent distress. The intervention is offered to families by a psychosocial professional, but the research team has decided to include some non-profit advocates in the training this time. They want to get more direct feedback from parents. So at this training, we will be surrounded by clinicians. Though these are psychosocial professionals, I have found that they think differently than parents. Mainly because there is a divide between providing care and being the recipient of it. Though I think skills training can benefit most of us, I have concerns about how and when such skills are offered to parents who are actively supporting a child with cancer.
All I know is when Mattie was in the hospital, I could hardly talk to anyone, much less have visitors enter our room. As Mattie got sicker, his desire was for isolation and no noise. If someone would have approached me to participate in skills based training, I most likely would have thrown them right out of the room. Thankfully not all parents are like me, but I have to believe my experiences and insights can help tailor this intervention. It should be an enlightening experience and I am trying to enter it with an open mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment