About this Blog, A Journey Through Sarcoma

Confections for Cats, A Journey through Sarcoma is a chronicle of my son's journey through Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Sarcoma. It is intended to educate and inspire by using Mathew’s thoughts and feelings, dreams and fears through a variety of mediums; art, music, and writing. Through factual experience, what we learned and what we wish we had known. Mathew’s desire was to give meaning to his journey and in the process help anyone else on a similar path.

The last possible explanation in my mind for my son’s health problems was cancer. Even the words “the scan shows a large mass” didn’t lead me to conclude cancer and when the cancer diagnosis was confirmed, I still wasn’t prepared.

My Mother is a breast cancer survivor and my sister Elizabeth passed away three years after her breast cancer diagnosis.

I thought I knew what cancer treatment and living with cancer looked like, but none of us could imagine or be prepared for how all semblance of routine and normalcy had already been taken away.

It was eleven months from Mathew’s diagnosis to his passing. I will cover this time period in approximately 500 posts, 3 to 4 posts a week including pictures, excerpts from Mathew’s journal, his poetry and more. I will utilize guest bloggers or interviews with doctors, pharmacists and other experts for more information and explanations.

This blog will be unique in that it will cover the entire journey. When Mathew and I searched for information/personal experiences for Sarcomas, the blogs ended abruptly and often didn’t have what we had hoped to find.

With that in mind, Mathew and I took pictures, made notes, journaled. Journaling was Mathew’s nature already, but he had the added intention of helping anyone that followed in the same or similar journey.

This will be a work in progress. It has been a difficult three years since Mathew passed away and working on this comes with its own pain, but it is a promise I made to my son.

I will be using Mathew’s journals, poetry, music, texts, and pictures along with my notes and other's notes about our experiences.

I haven’t had the courage to read Mat’s journals yet but as I do I will add (them) in so previously published blog posts will be updated.

So return often for more information, pictures or links as I open up boxes of medical records that I packed up but haven’t been able to look at before now.

Consider this a first draft in motion. This is told from my point of view and Mathew’s.

Replace the 3 Lumen Pic Line with a Port

Mathew's 3 Lumen Pic Line was replaced with a Power P.A.C. Both Mathew and I were given Medical I.D. cards to carry at all times. I have mentioned before that texting from the DRC is almost impossible. The staff told me it used to be the X-ray department so the walls are leaded. Again, the phone tree would have helped so much. I texted the following information to my niece, my sister and Mathew’s Dad and Stepmom. And probably Joseph and Carlos. I know that could have been reduced to two texts, three at the most. At the time I didn’t know about group messaging as my phone was an old Android. Texts Between me and Diane Hi. We are at the hospital early because Mat is in a lot of pain. We think the bill stent may have moved. Sent 3-31-14 Because he was NPO for other procedure they should be able to fix today. Sent 3-31-14 In the DRC sending texts is almost impossible so if you don’t hear from me for a while don’t worry. If ...

A Cancer Poem by Mathew Rodgers 2014

From Mathew’s Journal 4-5-14 “I lie awake in my pain bed metallic noises chirping from my strange computer companion”

Who is the Keeper of the Memories

Mathew and his twin Joseph had a teacher in High School, Brad Ash. He was a homeroom teacher, a counselor and eventually a friend and bandmate. The evolution of their relationship spanned six years. Brad eventually became my friend too. When I think of Brad Ash, I see him with long blond rock star hair! He regularly cut it and donated it to locks for love. Mathew soon followed his example. In 2010 Brad, an avid cyclist was struck and killed by an SUV. Mathew was allowed into the ICU to see Brad during the few days before he died. He never regained consciousness. If you listen to Adrian Told Me, the last verse is about Brad. "She said, did he leave his eyes open." https://soundcloud.com/confectionsforcats/adrian-told-me Brad's students and friends, were devastated by his sudden death. The young people organized a night of music in his memory. Now, as I continue to go through Mathew's paperwork, I find articles about Brad's accident. Mathew was one of the ...

Confections For Cats

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