Tonight's picture was taken on January 19, 2003. I can remember this photo as if it were taken yesterday. We brought Mattie outside to our commons area. As he loved zooming around in his "tot wheels!" That day Peter had a camera in hand and was snapping photos. What I love about this photo was Peter captured Mattie looking up at me and smiling! We have a Facebook friend who occasionally posts photos of Mattie and displays them in creative ways. Well Tim blew up this photo for me and when he showed me the result, it was very clear that my reflection was in Mattie's eyes.
Quote of the day: Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change. ~ Wayne Dyer
This afternoon, Dr. Chahine stopped by to visit Mattie. Yes on a SUNDAY and on Father's day! I forgot to wish Dr. Chahine a happy father's day (mostly because Mattie was in one of his moods and I was focused upon him), but hopefully if he is reading this, he knows that our intentions were for him to have a great day. In addition to being a great surgeon he is a dedicated dad. Dr. Chahine brought Mattie a Star Wars robot today. He said that his girls picked it out for Mattie. I can't think of a more thoughtful gesture! You can see the robot in the picture, it has a red head!
You maybe asking yourself, who is Dr. Chahine. Well he was Mattie's surgeon who removed 9 lung tumors, by way of a sternotomy. Because Dr. Chahine is a surgeon, we did not know him prior to the surgery as up until June of 2009, he was not a part of Mattie's treatment team. So naturally we had great concerns about adding another doctor to Mattie's line up. Given Mattie's aggressive cancer, there were no other options really other than performing the surgery to remove his lung tumors.
However, right from the beginning Dr. Chahine caught our attention. He isn't your typical surgeon. He listens and he tries to address all of a family's concerns. When we demanded a pre-surgical meeting, so that everyone on Mattie's treatment team could discuss the surgery and coordinate thoughts and post surgery care ideas, Dr. Chahine said SURE. Mind you our request wasn't typical and not all surgeons would be eager to set up such a planning meeting. But Dr. Chahine understood where we were coming from and heard our feedback about our previous surgery experiences with Mattie.
In most training hospitals, the doctor who does your surgery, isn't always the doctor who follows up with you. In many cases, you are followed up by residents. I explained to Dr. Chahine that I did not want Mattie followed up by his residents, that I expected him to be on point. Not only was he on point, but he visited us daily post surgery! Even on a Sunday, which back then happened to be Father's Day! He is an absolutely incredible doctor, who I saddened to say is no longer in the Washington, DC area.
Why am I mentioning this? Because every year around Christmas or New Year's, Dr. Chahine makes a contribution to Mattie Miracle! Can you believe this? I think his kindness and support speaks volumes and I will always remember his incredible compassion.
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