Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Tuesday, April 21, 2020 -- Mattie died 551 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2008. Mattie received a package in the mail from our former neighbors who moved to NYC. Our neighbors wanted to celebrate Mattie's birthday, but in many ways the packing paper around the gift was just as special as the gift itself. They wrote all sorts of fun sayings and birthday messages to Mattie on the paper. Mattie loved it and we taped it to the wall and I snapped this photo to share with our neighbors. Do you see on the bottom of the paper.... they even wrote out the musical notes to the song, Happy Birthday!




Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• the number of people diagnosed with the virus: 820,401
• the number of people who died from the virus: 44,228
• 
  

Two weeks ago today, Sunny had his knee ligament surgery. When we brought him home, this was what his leg looked like.

Now two weeks later, his incision is healing very well and his fur is growing back. Sunny had his two week follow up appointment today with the surgeon. To this day, we have NEVER met the surgeon face to face. All our communications have been through the phone. It is quite the set up. We call when we are outside the animal hospital, a tech comes to our car and gets Sunny, and then the doctor examines him and calls us to chat about her observations. 

Sunny is able to walk on all fours now, but still has trouble getting up from a seated position. Also when he gets up and initially starts walking, he looks arthritic. The vet said this is normal and recommends six weeks of physical therapy to build up his muscles, which were cut in surgery. We return back on Thursday to have a rehab consult, with the specialist. 

On the drive to the animal hospital today, we passed this daycare center. They had a big sign of HOPE in the window!

Unlike in previous years, this is the extent of toiletry donations we received this year. The Coronavirus is the culprit. Nonetheless, we are very grateful for all the items that have come in and will help stock our snack and item carts at hospitals. 

Meanwhile, on April 10, Peter and I went to the post office to mail a check for $10,000 to the Children's Hospital at Sinai, to start the Mattie Miracle Coronavirus Family Relief Fund. A fund that will help families of children with cancer pay for expenses during this challenging time. Now 11 days later, the hospital finally received our check! Can you believe it took 11 days for a letter to get from DC to Baltimore?! I am thankfully it finally got there because tomorrow we were going to drive to Baltimore to hand deliver a check.