Journal

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Sorry it’s been so long since I updated Matthew’s website. I don’t really have an excuse except that as many other authors of caringbridge sites that don’t get much traffic have stated, it’s hard to come back and “talk” to themselves.

A lot has happened since I updated last. Matthew’s anniversary of his angel date was hard, as you read on my last update. Christmas is always hard, not only because he is not here with us, but on December 20, 2001, we found out he had relapsed. We spent Christmas Eve Day down at Children’s Hospital here in St. Louis having blood drawn to see if any of us were a match for a Bone Marrow Transplant for Matthew. It was the first Christmas in our new house and our last Christmas with Matthew. The holiday was very somber, since we weren’t sure whether it would be Matthew’s last Christmas with us.

I guess one of the major event that has happened since I last updated was Christopher’s wedding on November 17 in Minneapolis.

Christopher and Cami had their Bachelor/Bachelorette parties over Labor Day weekend in Minneapolis. Dirk and I flew up, along with Julie and Brad from Atlanta and Dirk’s mom and dad. Saturday the guys went floating (a whole other story). Since Dirk was Christopher’s best man, he went too and I think he kind of kept everything a little down to earth. After they floated all day, they went out for dinner and then to a few bars. Dirk came home fairly early (10:30 ish). The gals went out to dinner also and hit a few bars. They finally met up for Pizza around 2:30 am. I think they all had a good time. Dirk’s mom, dad, me and Cami’s mom and dad went out for a quiet dinner and then went back to the hotel.

Sunday, Cami’s parents had a combination pig roast/shower. It was a lot of fun and the weather was great. We got to meet a lot of Cami’s parents’ friends from the neighborhood and also from their church. Monday we all met for a late lunch before everyone flew home.

The wedding was the weekend before Thanksgiving. Dirk and I drove up and took my mom. Dirk’s parents also drove up so that we would have several cars
for the out of town guests. We got up there Thursday afternoon and met Cami’s parents, aunt and uncle from Brazil, and various members of the wedding party who had flown in Thursday, for dinner.

Friday, Julie, me, my sister, Steph from South Carolina, and her daughter Kelly, went shopping in the morning. In the afternoon, Julie, my mom and I went to the Happy Gnome in St. Paul (where the rehearsal dinner was to be held) to decorate the tables. We were dismayed to find that they were renovating the upper meeting room where the rehearsal dinner was to be held. There was construction “junk” and sawdust all over the place. The owner assured us that it would look different that night, and trust me; we were ready to pitch a fit if it wasn’t. We were amazed at the transformation that night. I think everyone had fun. I was the designated driver and drove some people back to the hotel, and Dirk drove Christopher back to the loft in downtown Minneapolis and then brought his groomsmen back to the hotel.

The wedding day was cold, but not freezing. Everything went off without a hitch (at least as far as I could tell). I will try to post some pictures from the wedding if I can remember how to scan them in. Christopher was surprised that the doctor he worked under at the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Banes Hospital while he was in undergraduate school at Washington University, and his secretary flew up from St. Louis the morning of the wedding, and then flew back to St. Louis before the reception. It was great to have them there and I know it meant so much to Christopher. He (Dr. Atkins) was the one who talked to Christopher the morning Matthew died. He has been such a good friend and mentor to Christopher.

Christopher and Cami went to Argentina for their honeymoon. In the midst of all of the wedding preparations, Christopher has been flying to various hospitals to interview for his one-year general medicine rotation and his four-year radiation oncology residency. He is a fourth year medical student, so he is interviewing for the next five years. He has been to a lot of top-name medical schools for Radiation Oncology, including MD Anderson, Stanford, Mayo, Sloan Kettering, and Duke, to name a few. His last interview is the first part of February, and then he will wait (along with all the other fourth-year medical students across the US) until “Match Day” in March to see where he will spend the next five years. Of course I am hoping for Barnes/Washington University here in St. Louis, but I still hope that wherever he is, he is happy.

Julie and Brad, along with Christopher and Cami came home for Christmas. It was so good to have them here, but of course it was sad to have them leave. I feel like all we did was cook, eat, and clean up dishes, but we still had a great time. Julie and Brad are doing great. Julie was in Pittsburgh for a week in early December. She attended a seminar/class at the Wharton School of Business. It was such an honor for her to be able to attend. She likes her job a lot and is doing well.

The week before Christmas, December 16, my mom fell on some ice and broke her femur (the large bone between your knee and hip). It was on the same side that she had the knee replacement several years ago and had so much trouble. I got a call from one of her neighbors that she was in the emergency room. She had to go into surgery Monday, Dec. 17, to have her fractured femur repaired. She had a rough time with the anesthesia, taking several days to get back to normal. On Wed, Dec 18, she was complaining about her ankle on the same side hurting and it was swollen and bruised…needless to say, they x-rayed it and her ankle was broken! They were so concerned about her femur that they didn’t x-ray her ankle. She really didn’t feel the pain in her ankle until several days later, so back she went to surgery on Friday, Dec. 20. She was discharged to a skilled facility on December 22 and will stay until she is safe to go home. She will not be able to put any weight on that leg for 4 – 6 weeks, and then she will require a walker for 4 – 5 months! We spent part of Christmas Day at the Nursing Home celebrating Christmas with her. She goes back to the surgeon for her first follow-up visit this Friday. Hopefully the bones will be aligned and healing properly.

Dirk and I are doing well. Of course we miss the kids, but we are good. I like my job a lot, but of course working in the field of oncology, it has its ups and downs. Dirk is always there for me when I need to vent.

Thanks again for stopping by to visit Matthew’s website. We miss him so much. It is hard to believe that we are heading into the sixth year he has been gone. He will have been 22 in March… a senior in college. I wonder what he would have majored in? Please take a moment to sign the guest book so that I know that you were here. Even though I don’t update as often as I should, I still stop by to check the guest book.

Love and Happy New Year!
Debbie