Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 - Today was a decent day inspite of Mattie not having any food/drink until tonight and a 3 hour long MRI for which he was sedated. Mattie spent the morning (surprisingly) not focused on food, but rather on playing with Linda and the other Child Life volunteers and intern in the unit. This activitiy occupied most of the morning, which helped Matt keep his mind on other things.

Also, this morning, Dr. Matt Biel had a psycho-education session with Mattie along with support from Linda regarding Mattie's body and the soldier cells. Dr. Matt explained to Mattie that in his body he had lots of soldier cells that kill bugs, and he explained to Mattie that each soldier cell needed two things that Mattie had to supply the solider cells with to survive: food and weapons. Mattie quickly understood that if he ate food that he was delivering food to the solider cells, and that the medicines were the solider cells' weapons to the kill the bugs. The session was very helpful for Mattie and included a model of the mouth, esophogus and stomach that was made by Jenny and Jessie (the art therapists) down in the clinic. The model was a great teaching tool and really helped Mattie process things.

Also, thanks to Linda, we had a impromptu meeting with the in-patient Pediatric Physical Therapist, Anna, who is setting up a PT assessment of Mattie before we are released to go home. Based on the insights and observations from our PT RCC support team (Katie and Kristin), we are trying to be proactive on this front for Mattie.

Just after the lunch hour, Mattie was given Versed and then we carted him down to the MRI unit, where he was given Propofol, which knocked him out for several hours. The MRI was done to get better imaging of the left arm (in two places) and the right leg. This MRI was done with contrast that is injected during the procedure to provide better imaging resolution. However, when we arrived for the appointment, Mattie's intensivist told Vicki that the procedure was scheduled to take four hours. However, she cautioned us about this, saying that Mattie really shouldn't be sedated for more than 3 or 3 1/2 hours at the most with propofol for safety reasons. All Vicki needed to hear! So at which point, Vicki went into action, and wasn't moving forward until we got confirmation that the MRI wouldn't take more than three hours, and she said if it was going to be more than three hours, she wasn't going to consent to the procedure. Needless to say, it was three hours on the dot and the intensivist (Dr. Aruna Natarajan) was fantastic!

During this time, Vicki and I got some light lunch items and sat on top of the Leavy Center roof in the sun. We were joined by Rob Frye, a good friend, who rode his bike over from the office and who joined me on a walk around the Gerogetwon Campus. Both Rob (due to ROTC) and Pete (due to business school) have spent significant time on Campus, so it was good to take a walk in the sunshine and outside. While I was walking about, Vicki spent time with Lorraine, a dear family friend chatting in Mattie's room.

Mattie recovered around 5pm and was carted back up to his room, where he spent the next two hours or so coming out of sedation. Mattie is always very disoriented with slurred speech and blurred vision in addition to dizziness, so the recovery process is always very disconcerting.

We had a number of visitors today as well including Lorraine Kleinwaks who brought some tasty treats for Mattie (the pizza was a hit right after the MRI, Mattie had an entire piece while hiding under a blanket). Also, Van Brathwaite and Bonnie Rampersaud, Assistant Attorney General and CEO respectively from the DC Counselor Licensure Board (of which Vicki is the chair) also paid a visit and brought some things for both of us and Mattie (we loved the cards and Veggie Tales and the puppy were a big hit tonight). In addition to Rob Frye's visit mentioned above, we also had several people from Pete's office pay a visit. Amy Saxton, Melissa Torres, Can Ozturk and Vidit Mittal came over to deliver some delicious cupcakes as well as some things for Mattie (we loved the cards). Also, Srinivas and Artie Varanasi (Srinivas also works at Voxiva) paid a visit as well, and brought us some homemade Indian food as well as some things for Mattie. Last but definitely not least, many thanks to Lana Sonoda and her daughter Erin who paid us a visit, and brought a tasty vanilla shake for Mattie (which is GONE now) and also brought us some incredible dinner. We are blessed to have so many wonderful friends in our lives!