Friday, February 11, 2022

Friday, February 11, 2022

Tonight's picture was taken by Mattie's art therapist, Jenny. Jenny captured a series of photos that day, as Mattie surprised me with a box full of valentines. Mattie even made me a crown of hearts. As you can see, he placed the crown over my head. Mattie was very proud of his creative accomplishments and he spent hours working on this box in the child life playroom. I was banned from the room that day, until the presentation of the gift..... a moment I will never forget. 

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

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 77,552,386
• Number of people who died from the virus: 917,744

My dad's physical therapist came at 10am today. That may sound late in the morning, but around here, getting it together by 10 is close to impossible! I got up at 7am, because I literally am dragging from exhaustion. I got myself showered and dressed, and then I went downstairs to make breakfast. Then I ran back upstairs to get my dad up, showered, and dressed. His irritable bowel issue was over the top today as I was back and forth with him to the bathroom too numerous to count. 

It takes me about an hour to get my dad up, washed, and dressed and downstairs. But then I also have to factor in that he has to have breakfast before the therapist arrives, and potentially use the bathroom again. Literally the therapist was ringing my doorbell, while I was helping my dad out of the bathroom. 

Both of my parents receive physical therapy. However, today my mom was discharged and told that her balance and activity level is above average for her age. She is above average and my dad is below average. It makes for a real challenge when two people have such different abilities. 

The highlight of my day was receiving this wonderful Valentine's surprise from Peter. The flowers are so fragrant and are brightening up our home. Of course FOOD and TREATS are always the way to my heart! 

My dad saw this today and of course wanted to eat all the chocolate and helped himself. 

Meanwhile, I have been worried about Sunny too! If you have been reading the blog, then you know I fell down the staircase and landed on Sunny. In addition, yesterday Sunny chased a fox in our backyard. The combination of things caused him to start limping yesterday. I started him on his anti-inflammatory meds and he seems to be doing better by this afternoon. But of course given his surgery in September of 2021 and April of 2020, I worry about his hind legs. 

Any case, in the midst of all my other tasks, I sat down today to answer emails and to do Foundation correspondence. I am pleased that with all the chaos around me, I am moving head with two initiatives: 1) the M & M Wishes program, in memory of my friend Margy, and 2) I have connected with a social worker in Michigan about funding psychological services for an 8 year old coping with trauma from his cancer treatments.