Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Tuesday, March 9, 2021 -- Mattie died 597 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2007. We took Mattie to Key West for spring break to spend time with Peter's parents. Outside one of the restaurants we ate at was this car, with what appeared to be a gigantic shrimp on top of it. Of course Mattie thought that was hysterical and deserved a photo. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 29,081,612
• Number of people who died from the virus: 527,389

We heard from Mattie's physical therapist today. She now lives in Washington State, but we still are in communication. It is interesting how our connections with Mattie's care team remain a special part of our lives. I suspect they will always be given the intense reality we faced each day while Mattie was in the hospital. The bond established through cancer is unlike any other I can describe. 

Apparently a group of doctoral physical therapy students have designed an app for children with cancer. The app is called danceable. I can only imagine how much Mattie would have enjoyed this and I would love to see the app demonstrated, just to see how applicable it could be to all children with cancer, not just children with blood cancers (which is who the app is intended for). 

Any case, I am posting the flyer in case any of my readers want more information or want to participate in the focus group! Sounds like a worthy resource and tool, and what I learned first hand from Mattie, was that with kids you can't just do physical therapy exercises like you would with adults. Instead, you have to creatively intertwine exercises into games, and it helps it these games are tailored to the child's interests.