Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 - Mattie had a tough day recovering from vomitting over night from the anesthesia. But, Mattie was his usual tough (and incapable of sitting still) self, and insisted on checking if JJ (the Jack Russell Terrier also seen in the slide show) was up and about. Sure enough, at 6:35am this morning (bless his soul), JP de Andino and JJ were up and about, so we had fun for over an hour, playing around with sticks and pine cones.

The rest of the day was a wash as we waited to be called to the hospital to see if we could be squeezed into a CT Scan or a Bone Scan. Mattie and Pete went to Toys-R-Us to get a prize for Mattie. Mattie (acting like an Army General) made a B-line for the remote controlled boats (shocker for those of you who have asked what he is saving his pennies for and been told "for a boat.... a big boat"). After a brief interlude with the Wendys drive-thru for a Frosty and a burger, Mattie and Pete returned home, Vicki did grocery shopping in the interim while Mattie and Pete hung out watering plants, building an umbrella fort, taking medications and being goofy.

We have been blessed with a number of good friends who are actively scouring the Internet for a variety of information (best Docs, best Oncologists, best facilities, etc), so a special thanks go out to Lorraine, Logan and Jonathan Kleinwaks, who have not only supported Vicki (and Pete indirectly) through thick and thin, but have gone above and beyond the defintion of Friendship.

So the CT Scan was not as "clear" as desired primarily because Mattie was knocked out on Anethesia and was laying flat, so we will have to do the CT Scan again. Also, Dr. Toretsky is trying to move Mattie's Bone Scan up so that we can keep the torrid pace of his staging going. Mattie could conceivably have a surgery on Friday to insert a port into his upper chest area (for the regular chemo shots will will be receiving shortly).

Meanwhile, we have been receiving excellent care (for the first time in my life we believe we are actually experiencing what health care should be and not what people talk about it being). Dr. Allison Lax, the Radiologist who performed the Biopsy, followed-up with us today and actually took a second call from Mattie "to tell her he got a motor boat from the toy store this morning". Also, Ann Henshaw, wife of Bob Henshaw and Mattie's surgeon and earth-bound angel, has been calling and been unrelenting in her determination to have playdates, activities and free time for Mattie this week so that he has some kind of "normalcy" in his life. So, once again, we are blessed.

Of course our Families have been nothing but superbly supportive and completely there for us. Without them we would be completely lost. We cannot say enough to you, so please know the debt of graditude, love and caring that we owe to you.

So, tomorrow may be tests, short-notice appointments and God knows what as we trudge towards finishing Mattie's Staging diagnostics, but we are trying to hang in there for Mattie. Once again, thank you to all those who have sent emails, called, text messaged and been watching out for us. As a sign of how well loved we are (to boast for a moment), we sent out an email and a link to this blog to a number of people tonight after 10pm and within minutes we had over a half dozen replys back from all around the World (the US, South America, Africa and India). I don't know about you, but in my mind that is the definition of love.....