Monday, September 28, 2020

Monday, September 28, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2002. Mattie was five months old. At that age, "tummy time" was what all pediatricians were pushing on parents. I certainly tried to encourage Mattie to stay on his tummy to play, but I was never very successful. It wasn't a position Mattie cared for, not even when he was a toddler or preschooler. Nonetheless, I tried music, jumping around, and all sorts of distractions to keep Mattie engaged on his tummy. But Mattie had a mind of his own, and he did not follow the typical developmental milestones. As Mattie did away with tummy time,  crawling, and toddling around. 

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

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 7,134,874
• number of people who died from the virus: 204,905

Today would have been my maternal grandmother's 113th birthday. She died at the age of 87, on January 20, 1994. She and I were very close. She lived with my parents after her husband died from colon cancer. When I arrived in the world, my grandmother was already living with my parents and I grew up thinking everyone lived with their grandparents!

Naturally I only knew my grandmother as a child and teenager. Never really appreciating all she had been through. She understood and lived with grief and loss as her second child died shortly after birth and her husband died when she was only 53 years old. Back then we never spoke about these losses and as a child, it wouldn't have dawned on me to really ask. Of course now I wish I knew more and would have captured her insights. Yet despite all she survived, she was always happy, loving, bright, and a compassionate woman. I learned a lot from her..... how to cook, how to clean, my love for animals, how to sew, and the patience and energy to be a caregiver. 

My Sunset!

Since my procedure last Wednesday, I have had one issue after the other. Besides bleeding and cramping, I have had digestion issues, heartburn, and of course a migraine. I have felt debilitated. Given my experiences at the hospital where the procedure took place, I feel compelled to  write to the administration. They need feedback about their nursing staff and the general overall disregard for the whole patient. The health care providers I was working with had no idea about my previous experience with hospitals, nor did they care. In the age of trauma informed care, none of it was happening there. I also think.... what if the procedure revealed I had cancer? Where was their compassion and understanding for the patient and what fears the patient may have going into a procedure. The answer is none of this was on the forefront of their minds. They were performing their jobs, but forgetting about the importance of the emotional well-being of the patient. In any case, my mission this week is to compose a letter and send it!  

If it's a week day, we try to escape to the Island to walk Sunny. It was a beautiful day today, it felt like summer. Turtles were popping up in the Potomac River. 

The resident Great Blue Heron was on parade, and it makes you forget about the complexities of the world. The fact that we are going into month 8 of being locked down, and the list goes on. 

Seems like no island visit is complete without a deer sighting!

On the Foundation front, we announced today that our annual candy drive is going virtual this year. Prior to announcing this, we conferred with the hospitals we support to find out how they felt about accepting candy. 

Naturally our FREE snack and item carts need to be stocked with candy, and the Carts are more popular than ever! Families are turning to the Carts because it is close to impossible to leave their child's room due to COVID-19. In any case, we have eliminated candy sorting this year and have requested that all candy be donated in its original store bought vacuum sealed bag. No opened bags will be accepted this year. To learn more about our Amazon Wish List or where to drop off candy, go to: https://www.mattiemiracle.com/events