Skip to main content

Visitation the First Week at Moffitt

That first week Mathew’s hospital room, which was quite large, took on the typical hospital room appearance with flowers, get well cards taped on the wall, snacks and goodies dropped off by friends and family.
Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, cousins, school friends, a Priest and even several of Mathew’s College Professors made the 40-mile trip to wish him well. A co-worker of Arpie’s, came all the way from Orlando with "get well wishes" from the Firestone's Orlando District Office. Mathew has twin cousins, Jason and Stephanie. 5 years and 5 days older than Mathew and Joseph. Jason made a trip over to see Mathew that first week. Later Mathew said to me. “Mom, it surprises me that my cousin Jason has been to see me.” He had been so sick with the build-up of toxins, bile and everything else that was going wrong inside of him, that he hadn’t remembered his cousin’s visit.

After just a few days we realized that all of the activity was exhausting for Mathew and we started limiting the number of visitors and types of visits.


Here is a get well cardboard from the younger brother of one of Mathew's friends.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...