Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Tuesday, October 23, 2018 -- Mattie died 475 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2008. A day I will never forget. We took Mattie to Memorial Sloan Kettering to meet with an oncologist and a surgeon. A particular immunotherapy trial for osteosarcoma was being conducted at the hospital and we wanted to find a way to get Mattie enrolled. In addition, Memorial Sloan Kettering was consulted for a second opinion. However, every aspect of our experience there was horrific. The surgeon alone was a made for TV movie. He made us wait four hours to see him (the photo shows Mattie getting very restless). When the surgeon finally graced us with his presence, he could only spend five minutes with us because he was running to a gala across town. If that wasn't bad enough, he spent the first minute of our meeting silent. We just stared at him. Then he started talking, what came out of his mouth was frightening and NOT age appropriate for Mattie. I literally told him to stop talking so I could remove Mattie from the room. In a nutshell, the surgeon said he would not operate on Mattie because Mattie was going to die. We needed to face that and start palliative care. To this day, I still don't like hearing about Memorial Sloan Kettering. 



Quote of the day: Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. ~ Marcus Aurelius

I am proud to say that I drove 273 miles by myself today. My parents and I took a road trip from Washington, DC to Tarrytown, NY. We are in NY because my mom is getting honored by the school she taught at on Thursday.

We snapped a photo at our only rest stop! It was a great place to stop, right before the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Not crowded and clean!

Outside this rest stop was a Fall harvest theme! Mattie would have loved this!!! It was an absolutely beautiful fall day to take on this drive. 

I am in a sweater and my mom is in a coat! In all fairness, compared to LA, it is freezing here!

As we drove into Westchester County from NJ, we crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge. Or at least what used to be the bridge. Now a new suspension bridge is up, parallel to the old bridge. I was stunned. The new bridge is called the Gov. Mario Cuomo bridge. The old bridge is on the right and the new one on the left! Keep in mind that at one time my parents and I lived in NY! I always find it hard to go back to a place I once lived in, because it never remains as how I remembered it to be. 

We checked into the hotel tonight! This hotel means a lot to me as we used to stay here whenever we came back to NY to visit family. When I was in high school, my family moved to Los Angeles. It was a huge adjustment. So every year we would come back to visit family and friends and we would stay at this hotel. We also hosted my grandmother's 80th birthday party here and it was also the hotel where all our out of town guests stayed for our wedding. Clearly the hotel doesn't look the same inside, but it still reminds me of all our family trips!

We checked into the hotel and one thing of the past that NO LONGER exists is porters! I remember the hotel's porter. His name was Joseph. A lovely person, and always treated my grandmother beautifully! How people make me feel is NEVER forgotten no matter how much time lapses by!!!