Lots of Progress... And Even More To Do!

I apologize for the delay in posting. A lot has been going on since the last time I posted. I was in Maryland for more than a week over Christmas break which allowed me to work on my senior project with Dr. Henderson. I have also been able to talk to several people about it.

First of all, I have great news about the TV interview that was canceled. We thought they decided to drop the story all together, but while I was at Dr. Henderson’s office one day, Kyri called me and said they wanted to reschedule! Dr. Henderson and I were so excited and set the date right then! We will be flying to Maryland on Feb. 3rd and the interview will be Feb. 4th. We are so thankful that they still decided to do the story!

Dr. Henderson called my mom this week with more great news about our trip. He has a friend that works with the Washington Post and he has arranged for an interview with them at the same time as our trip! I will post that article and interview as soon as they are published!

Another thing to be accomplished on my trip in February is a meeting with a website builder. Dr. Henderson and I thought it would be a good idea to use the company who built another doctor’s website, because he wants to link their websites. I will still be responsible for filling in all of Dr. Henderson’s information and maintaining the website. Our goal is to have the website up and running as soon as possible!

When I was in Maryland over Christmas break, Dr. Henderson asked me to join him for lunch. I quickly found out that he had ulterior motives for this lunch. He ended up spending the majority of the time trying to convince me to go to medical school. I fought him the whole time on the idea, so he said for me to just pray about it and see what God wants me to do. He did not know that I had been praying about it for a long time and it took him and several others saying to me, “You would be a really great doctor, so you should go to med school!” So needless to say, I have decided to become a doctor! Since making this decision, I have seen everything fall into place for school and have talked to 3 different doctors about it! I feel very good about my decision!

In making this decision, I added another aspect to my senior project! The last day I was in Maryland, I went to work with Dr. Henderson for the day. I was very excited about it! He picked me up at 7:30 then we went to visit one of his patients in the hospital. Due to HIPPA laws, I could not see the patient. We then went to his office and saw patients from 9:30 to 5:30. It was a hectic day and we were rushing around the entire time and only had a 10 minute lunch break which consisted of PB&Js. Even though it was a crazy day, it was one of the best days of my life! It reassured me that I definitely want to be a doctor!

Right now I have several projects I am working on. I will list them because they have been explained in earlier posts.

-The meeting with the Residence Program at Spartanburg Regional

-Starting the NC and SC Chiari/EDS support group

-Learning how to write a case study for my research paper

-Beginning promoting the Zebra Run

-Talking with patients about my experience and giving tips about surgery and living with EDS (This is an ongoing and lifelong project I will do!)

Article in Maryland

I finally found a link to the article in the hospital newsletter. This article was beautifully done! It was mailed to every household in Price George’s County, MD, which is 230,000 homes! I have given Mrs. Zion a copy if anyone would like to see a hardcopy of it!

http://www.csfinfo.org/sites/default/files/mackenzie_mathis_story.pdf

Pictures of Maryland

These are some pictures of some of the people I love in Bethesda!

Dr. Henderson and me after tethered cord surgery

My favorite nurse Netty in my hospital room after fusion surgery

Elayne, a nurse in Dr. Henderson's office who also has EDS

Kyri, who wrote the article about me for the hospital's newsletter

Dr. Henderson amazed that I can stand on pointe

EDS's effect on my hand joints

Netty came to see me speak at the meeting in October

Preparing for Christmas Break

We still have not heard back from the producer, so we are assuming it will not happen soon.  The hospital kept the tickets they had bought for us and has asked that we use them the next time we come up.  It was very generous of them and we are very grateful for the tickets.  We don’t know if they will want to do the story at a later date, but we are hoping!

Kyri, the woman who wrote the article for the hospital newsletter, sent me more copies of the article.  I will put a copy in the senior lounge.  I still haven’t figured out how to post it here but I will keep working on it.

I spoke with Dr. Henderson this week as well.  I will be spending a week up there over Christmas break so we will have lots of time to work together on his website.  Mom and I have been doing research on how make website for him and looking at what other doctors’ websites look like.  I am really excited to be able to meet with him and get this started.

Lots of Waiting

This week, I feel like I have not accomplished very much. It has been a lot of waiting on my part. We are waiting on the producer in DC to get back with us on a date for the interview. They have to work around Dr. Henderson’s hectic schedule so I have to be very flexible. I am completely okay with this though! I am just thankful to have these opportunities!

On Tuesday we received the article from Maryland. It turned out beautifully! We have asked for more copies because we only have 3. I am also trying to figure out how to post it on this blog. It shouldn’t be too complicated though.

First Article Published

Today the first article about my story has been published! It is very crazy to experience this, especially when I think about where I was this time last year! If someone had told me then, “Mackenzie, this time next year you will have had 2 surgeries, be pain-free, and have an article published on you in the Spartanburg Herald Journal,” I would have laughed in their face! It is all so surreal still and I am so grateful for the many opportunities God has given me through all of my struggles and pain!

I have been so blessed in the past 2 years and am so excited for the next years to come! This week we should be receiving the article from Maryland and finding out when we are filming for the TV station up there. I have already met 5 people this week with Chiari or EDS and 2 of them are because of the article! It is great to be able to share my story with them and give them advice based on my experiences.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20091110/ARTICLES/911101007/1106?Title=Teen-is-walking-tall-again

More Opportunities

I had a great trip to Maryland this week and I am very excited to go back on Monday! We were able to talk to Dr. Henderson a lot and share some ideas with him. We haven’t settled on any ideas, but I a writing up proposals and estimated costs for them. I will write more about them when I have some details. I will get to talk to him again this week about the plans for the meetings and other ideas we have.

Today I did an interview for the Spartanburg Herald Journal. It was pretty neat to be able to share my story again and to know that it will be shared with others! It was also really good practice for the interview in Maryland next week! I am really excited, but also nervous for that. I am very thankful for all of the opportunities that I have been given!