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Personal Child's Play/Children's Hospital Stories
Whytmage
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
i'm going to get serious for a moment. It's a side many people here haven't seen from me.
When my older sister was 2 years old, she was diagnosed with a Mitral Regurgitation. ((I'm sure I spelled that wrong)). There was a hole between her left and her right aorta, causing blood to go between the chambers instead of through her system. It's really a miracle they found it at that age because it's very rare, and she was only short of breath on occasion. But they found it nonetheless. At the time, my parents and my sister were living in Arizona, and the doctors there really had very little information on the condition. They called my grandma in Wenatchee (eastern Washington), and she told them about Seattle Children's Hospital. The groundbreaking work they have done in so many fields gave my parents hope that they could help my sister. They called thehospital, explained their financial situation and asked what they should do. Children's Hospital put my family on a plane to Seattle and took my sister in. She had 3 surgeries before her third birthday to repair the hole.
She recovered "fully" (the scar tissue caused fatigue and some other minor side effects). This in itself is due to Children's hospital. Furthermore, she remembers her time being there as happy and exciting. She played games, she had wonderful nurses who not only cared for her physically, but they made her comfortable, and they made my parents comfortable, setting up beds for them and all that.
That was in 1982.
When my sister became pregnant with her twins about 7 years ago, her gynecologist told her that there was worry her heart would not stand up to going into labor, and that giving birth to twins could kill her. my sister being the stubborn bitch she is refused to have the abortion. She said she would go through with it and pray.
She was sent to Children's hospital when she went into labor 2 months early. She had a C Section 2 days later and two baby girls were born, about 3 lbs each, tiny babies. They were kept in the hospital for about 6 weeks until they were breathing on their own, fully self sufficient. My sister never had to pay a dime. But on top of that, they took care of her.
I still can't tell that story without tears coming to my eyes. My sister was young enough to not need a lot of the services Child's Play provides, but there are so many kids that I saw there when I visited my sister that do. I can only imagine what my life would be like if a doctor told me i had to have cancer surgery at my age, but finding that out as a child would be devastating. But you don't see that at Children's Hospital. You see strong happy children that are playing with others. They aren't oblivious to their illness, but they are strong enough to be happy through it, because of the staff at Children's hospital, and because of the things that groups like Child's Play do.
There are so many things during PAX that help Child's Play. If you haven't signed up for them or donated, do it. There are so many lives that could not be touched if it weren't for the donations of people like us.
Also, if you have a story about how Child's Play or one of the hospitals it helps has changed you or your family's lives, please post it!
When my older sister was 2 years old, she was diagnosed with a Mitral Regurgitation. ((I'm sure I spelled that wrong)). There was a hole between her left and her right aorta, causing blood to go between the chambers instead of through her system. It's really a miracle they found it at that age because it's very rare, and she was only short of breath on occasion. But they found it nonetheless. At the time, my parents and my sister were living in Arizona, and the doctors there really had very little information on the condition. They called my grandma in Wenatchee (eastern Washington), and she told them about Seattle Children's Hospital. The groundbreaking work they have done in so many fields gave my parents hope that they could help my sister. They called thehospital, explained their financial situation and asked what they should do. Children's Hospital put my family on a plane to Seattle and took my sister in. She had 3 surgeries before her third birthday to repair the hole.
She recovered "fully" (the scar tissue caused fatigue and some other minor side effects). This in itself is due to Children's hospital. Furthermore, she remembers her time being there as happy and exciting. She played games, she had wonderful nurses who not only cared for her physically, but they made her comfortable, and they made my parents comfortable, setting up beds for them and all that.
That was in 1982.
When my sister became pregnant with her twins about 7 years ago, her gynecologist told her that there was worry her heart would not stand up to going into labor, and that giving birth to twins could kill her. my sister being the stubborn bitch she is refused to have the abortion. She said she would go through with it and pray.
She was sent to Children's hospital when she went into labor 2 months early. She had a C Section 2 days later and two baby girls were born, about 3 lbs each, tiny babies. They were kept in the hospital for about 6 weeks until they were breathing on their own, fully self sufficient. My sister never had to pay a dime. But on top of that, they took care of her.
I still can't tell that story without tears coming to my eyes. My sister was young enough to not need a lot of the services Child's Play provides, but there are so many kids that I saw there when I visited my sister that do. I can only imagine what my life would be like if a doctor told me i had to have cancer surgery at my age, but finding that out as a child would be devastating. But you don't see that at Children's Hospital. You see strong happy children that are playing with others. They aren't oblivious to their illness, but they are strong enough to be happy through it, because of the staff at Children's hospital, and because of the things that groups like Child's Play do.
There are so many things during PAX that help Child's Play. If you haven't signed up for them or donated, do it. There are so many lives that could not be touched if it weren't for the donations of people like us.
Also, if you have a story about how Child's Play or one of the hospitals it helps has changed you or your family's lives, please post it!
:!!: Current Addiction: World of Warcraft
:!!: Progress: My mage can kick your mage's ass. My hunter can kick your mage's ass, and I'm positive my Shadow Priest can kick your mage's ass also.
Whytmage on
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I have also benified from the Seattle Children's Hospital.
My sister, who is 3 and a half years older than me, was diagnosed at birth with a form of Spinabifita called Lypomenija myoseal (spelled wrong, I'm sure, but I didn't even learn to pronouce it until I was 10). Basically, she was born with a lump of fatty tissue on/in her spine. This has greatly affected he whole lower body throughout her life. The doctors, and the time of her birth, said that she would spend her relatively short life in a wheelchair with a bladder bag attached. When she was 3, and I was just a month old, she came home from her first open spinal surgery on Christmas day. No wheelchair, no bladder bag.
Since then, my family and I have spent a lot of time at Children's. I like to think that I pratically grew up in the place. I specifically remember, though I'm not sure after which surgery it was, playing Mario Kart for the N64 at the hospital. Some nice soul had donated it, I think, and they had it in this big case attached to a TV that they could roll around to different hospital beds. It was probably my first experience with videogames. It was a way for me to escape all the pain and fear my sister was feeling, and not feel guilty for being born "normal".
My sister, by the time she turned 20 and was in college, had had 10 surgeries, two of which were open spinal. She had spent a lot of her teenage years being angry because of the limping and the scarring on her back and legs. And in the era of the miniskirt, she was outcast because she didn't (and still doesn't) like showing her lower legs. All of the casts on her legs from the surgeries had left her calf muscles permanently atrified.
However, my sister has blossomed and has made a life for herself. She walks proud without a limp. Until recently, her future look bright and we were happy. Then, in April, a week after she turned 24, she went into the doctor's to get her knee looked at. Six months prior, her knee had started to bother her, and as a family, we worked on encouraging her to get it checked out. Since that check-up she has been diagnosed with Lymphoma. It's a type of Cancer of the blood. It had gotten into her lower left femur, her skull, her lungs, and was affecting her Lymph nodes. Fortunetly, the specific type of Lymphoma that she has has a 98% successful recovery rate. Right now she's about half way through her chemo treatment. Once that's done in November, she will have a special one-time treatment for her spinal fluid.
When this most recent diagnosis happened, my sister went back to that place when she was 14 during her second open spinal: scared and unsure of what would happen to her. I did my best to reassure her and tell her about all the good things that Children's had done for her. I then offered to do whatever I could to help. I shaved my head two days after her first chemo treatment, and am ready to donate whatever I have spares of (blood, bone marrow) to make her better again. So far, the doctors laugh at me as if I were joking, but I never had the oppotunity to help her when we were little. So I keep my head shaved and bare to support her, from now until November.
I have been supporting my sister since the day I was born, and thanks to the good people at Children's, I'll be there for her for many, many years to come.
Probably not what you meant by child's play stories, huh?
The SO is going to start getting jealous... LoL.
So yeah, you guys rock.
The staff there was so amazing. The baby was very tired, but couldn't sleep, so one of the nurses helped me sing to her while I walked her around. They also helped us with tips for administering her anti-nausea medication and re-hydration process. They played with her, made funny faces for her, made shots as easy as possible for her, and kept ElectricTurtle and me well-informed the whole time. They did a lot to calm my nerves because I was crying and freaking out thinking she might not be okay. They did everything they possibly could to make sure that she would be okay to go home and sleep in her bed that night - which she did around 4 or 5am. It was a very stressful and harrowing night, but without help from the incredible staff at Children's Hospital, things could have turned out much worse. We're so grateful to them for not only treating her but also remembering that even little people who can't verbalize their thoughts need comfort just like us big people.
Recovery Mode: ElectricTurtle providing a comfy shoulder to recoup on after our night at the Children's Hopsital ER.
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4th of July a long time ago, I had to leave the family dinner because my stomach was feeling upset. Mom and Grandma just thought it was bad indigestion. After it didn't get any better over the next day, and then got so worse I couldn't sleep the next night, they finally decided to take me in to see a doctor.
Well the doctor in town was out playing 18 holes (no joke either) so we headed to the hospital. (we were in Northern Michigan, so it was basically the next town over) I got x-rays taken, and when they came back to talk to me about the x-rays, I got introduced to a surgeon and an anesthesiologist at the same time. The reason was the pain I was feeling was my appendix on the verge of bursting and they wanted me on the operating table within the hour.
that's the back story of how I got into the hospital as a child, now comes the video games. After the surgery I didn't feel like moving or eating. But the nursing staff was smart. They set-up an SNES down the hall and the only way I got to play it for periods of time was by walking laps of the wing. That got me actually looking forward to doing things that helped with my recovery.
So that's why I donate to Child's Play. Video games were not only helping me relax and feel like a normal kid again, but they were also used as a tool to help me get back on my feet again.