Tonight's picture was taken on September 1, 2009. Putting this into context, seven days later, Mattie died. Pictured with Mattie was Jenny, one of Mattie's art therapists. Mattie was in tremendous pain and Jenny was doing her best to try to distract Mattie with a remote controlled dinosaur. Mattie was watching and trying his best, but he had his pain pump next to him and was miserable.
Quote of the day: I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up. ~ Erma Bombeck
At 7:30am, I got a call from Mattie's doctor. Peter and I are very fond of her and we support a child life professional at her hospital. She wanted me to know that our wonderful child life professional has left for personal family issues. I am deeply saddened by this because we loved her and she represented Mattie Miracle's mission beautifully. In addition to this huge loss, I got an education about the health care field post COVID. Apparently there are 200 vacant child life professional positions throughout the country! They just can't be filled mainly because child life professionals have become burnt out from overwork during COVID, they aren't paid enough, and many would rather have an office job or work from home. Of course I do not know how one does child life work from behind a desk, as child life is very hands on and uses education, medical play, and distraction techniques to help children cope with testing, treatment, and other difficult hospital experiences. This leaves me wondering the health of our endowed programs! So that did not start the day off on a positive note.
In addition, Mattie's doctor told me that emergency rooms are so short staffed that you can get admitted there and NEVER see an actual physician. Physician assistants are taking their place and I know full well that you can't compare a doctor to a physician's assistant. I am absolutely stunned! What is happening to the state of healthcare??!
Later in the morning, I got a call from my dad's physical therapist. She made room in her schedule to see him today! I was thrilled because I am having trouble motivating him at home. But Cassidy got him up and moving today and she really perked me up.
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