Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Tuesday, August 4, 2020 -- Mattie died 566 weeks ago today. 

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. Mattie was in his first month of treatment. Our second home was the hospital, and in fact, that year, we spent more time living in the hospital than at home. That weekend, Peter's family came to visit Mattie in the hospital. Keep in mind that Mattie's hospital room was located on the fifth floor of the building in the background. Yet we were all outside! That was because Mattie's nurse, Miki, understood how important it was for Mattie to interact with his cousins in a more normal setting. So she allowed us to go to the hospital rose garden (located on the second floor of the hospital). As you can see Miki came down from the fifth floor unit to periodically check on Mattie and his IV lines. Mattie's nurses really got it right from the beginning..... that childhood cancer is NOT just about the medicine. 

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

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 4,765,170
• number of people who died from the virus: 156,668

I did not sleep well last night. Most likely because I was stressed out about having to get up at 4am and flying across the Country today. When I arrived at Reagan National, this is what I saw. A ghost town!

While waiting for my flight, Peter sent me some photos of Sunny and Indie. Both of them were besides themselves today, because they were concerned that I was up so early! Don't you just love Sunny's expression?

Meanwhile, now that my shoes are gone, look who took over my shoe tray? Miss Indie!

I got lucky today, I had no one sitting next to me. It was delightful and made me feel less anxious which was good since it was a bumpy flight. The airline was very vigilant today about face mask wearing. In fact, if you did not comply you were told that you would be prevented from going on future flights. 

It was pouring in DC! I left grayness. 

We flew in horrible clouds for 45 minutes to an hour. With intense shaking and turbulence. The kind where you thought it was never going to end. 

Then all of a sudden, we left clouds and there was beautiful blue skies!

The grand canyon. 

Clouds and smog over Los Angeles. 

Left grayness, and landed into it! But fortunately in LA, this is only in the morning and then the sun comes out. 

The airport was like a ghost town and there was little to no traffic on the freeways. Which is unheard of. I got to my parent's home around 10am. It was a full day of travel. But I hit the ground running doing chores and got a lot accomplished. 

I am trying to assess how my dad is doing compared to when I left him a month ago. I would say his cognitive ability has improved significantly since June, but his physical issues remain. It is my hope that my presence here can help jump start a more significant improvement.