Happy St. Patrick's Day

March 17, 2009



Happy St. Patrick's Day to all our readers!


An Irish Prayer

May God give you...For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

Before I tell you about our day, I thought you may like to know some facts about St. Patrick and shamrocks! Enjoy! Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year on March 17th. In Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day is both a holy day and a national holiday. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland as he was the one who brought Christianity to the Irish. According to legend, Saint Patrick used a shamrock to explain about God. The shamrock, which looks like clover, has three leaves on each stem. Saint Patrick told the people that the shamrock was like the idea of the Trinity – that in the one God there are three divine beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so Saint Patrick’s use of it in explaining the trinity was very wise. Although it began in Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated in countries around the world. People with Irish heritage remind themselves of the beautiful green countryside of Ireland by wearing green and taking part in the festivities.

Mattie went to bed at around 12:15am, had his usual periodic wake up calls to use the bathroom throughout the night, but somehow had enough energy to get up early this morning! While I got dressed and did various other things, Mattie kept himself busy by doing a new lego set that Linda gave him. He literally put this set together all by himself. Mattie is still taking GCSF (white blood cell growth factor), and while he was getting his medicine this morning we discussed what he would like to do today when his grandparents came over. Mattie wanted to go for a walk and get fresh air, which was a good idea for all of us!

Peter's parents came over around 11am, and Peter's mom played with Mattie for several hours today. While they were playing, I went to take a nap for about 45 minutes. The problem with taking a nap is it is impossible to get up, and at this point, I am so sleep deprived that no amount of napping is going to help my situation. Before we headed out for our walk, we had a wonderful lunch together thanks to Liza May (a friend and SSSAS upper school mom). Liza prepared lunch for all of us, and her artichoke and leek chicken was fabulous, and she even made bug shaped pastas for Mattie. That was a huge success. While Mattie was eating lunch with us, he did several activities from the Scooby Doo activity books that Liza gave him. So lunch was very tasty and put us all in a good mood. Thank you Liza for out doing yourself!

We drove to Roosevelt Island after lunch and walked around the entire trail. Pushing the wheelchair on the trail became challenging at times because there was mud everywhere. None the less we all enjoyed the fresh air, seeing the first signs of spring coming in, and even feeding the ducks. Mattie was non-stop chatter throughout the entire trip. In fact, he was talking so much, that I wondered at times it he even stopped to catch his breath. I took a picture of Mattie with his grandparents on the trail. By the time we got back to the car, we were all somewhat


covered in mud. Mattie fell asleep during the car trip home, but by the time I brought him inside, he was wide awake and ready for his next form of entertainment and diversion. He had a 10 minute power nap, and apparently that helped him recharge for the rest of the day. It is hard to believe sometimes that Mattie has cancer, when I observe his level of activity!

When Peter got home tonight, we all had a nice dinner together thanks to the Keefe family. Thank you Debbie for including a beautiful dinner for all of us. In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, we had a tasty Irish Stew with sour dough bread. Mattie ate well too, and we all loved the tasty desserts as well! While we were eating dinner, Mattie was doing Kidpix on his computer. He was having a great time making pictures and also typing words and hearing them sounded out on the computer. It is funny to hear the computer reading whatever Mattie was typing. After dinner, Mattie played with a wonderful game the Keefe's gave him. A deluxe version of Rushhour. Mattie is quite good at this game because it involves spatial relationships. Thank you for making this a great night for us!

Mattie was also visited twice by JJ (our resident Jack Russell Terrier) today. JJ brought Mattie vanilla cupcakes. Mattie devoured one and was very happy that JJ thought of him!

As we head into wednesday, Whitney is coming over to spend time with Mattie for part of the day. Denise, Mattie's social worker, has given me tickets to take Mattie to the circus on wednesday evening. Based on my luck with Disney on Ice a few weeks ago, I decided NOT to tell Mattie about these tickets until about two hours before the circus. It is my hope that he will feel well enough to go tomorrow and enjoy this outting. Mattie has never been to the circus before. I think this will be a good mental diversion for me, so that I can forget about the thursday scans for a few hours.

As I end tonight's blog, I leave you with a message I received from my friend Charlie. Charlie wrote, "What a long day on Monday at the hospital and as usual how wonderful of everyone to keep Mattie productive and busy. As for Thursday's upcoming tests, thanks for sharing the reminder so that we can all put out our respective requests for prayerassistance. We can all join as a chorus of voices and hearts wishing Mattie good news from these scans no matter where we are. It is nice to see Mattie make continued progress on his path to regaining autonomy and independence. Just a few months ago, you would not have been able to be out of sight for even a few minutes and now Mattie is feeling much more comfortable reaching out to others again.You and Pete did a great job of managing his needs while not stopping him from regaining his independence skills. I am not sure everyone appreciates what a fine line you had to walk on that. May you now see the rainbow at the end of the long months of showers."


A Wish for a Friend (mind you I am not Irish, but I most definitely celebrate the spirit of the day!)


Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers-Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours-Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!