Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2009. Sitting on either side of Mattie are Louise and Meredith. At the time they were attending the same school as Mattie. That particular day they came to the hospital to surprise Mattie with his own Easter Egg Hunt in the hallway. They brought him a beautiful basket and many wonderful eggs. I even recall that several eggs were actually golden in color! Mattie just loved the experience. Of course Mattie couldn't run around or even walk to pick up the eggs, but the girls helped Mattie from one egg to the next. Of course despite Mattie's condition, he could spot an egg with his eagle eyes. 


Quote of the day: I think that all of us are 5-year-olds and we don't want to be embarrassed in the schoolyard. ~ Helen Hunt 


In a way the Easter Egg Hunt tradition, that was started for Mattie by his care community, continues on at the Hospital. The hunt isn't actually planned by Mattie Miracle, but by the Charity Through Medicine Club at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, VA. The club's president, Isabel approached me last year and asked whether Mattie Miracle would sponsor her Club and their service activities. All of these young women are interested in the field of medicine and service to others. In addition to running this Club, Isabel is a child life volunteer at Georgetown and has been helping Mattie Miracle since she was in middle school. So in essence she is no stranger to our activities and mission. 

What I love about tonight's quote is I do think an Easter Egg Hunt does bring out the five year old in all of us. Who can resist the idea of hunting for a colorful egg and the anticipation of wanting to know what is inside of it once you find it?

Before the Easter Egg Hunt
began, I snapped a photo of all the Club members who came to help. Since we are working in the in-patient pediatric units, keeping the number of volunteers down to a small group is important. The girls brought beautiful eggs and lots of baskets today! Of course the rabbit ears and flower headbands were a great springy touch!

In my option, or perhaps it was Mattie's, no event is complete without cupcakes. Normally I would make them, but Jess (one of the child life specialists) was kind enough to order these from Georgetown Cupcake. Georgetown Cupcake donates a ton of cupcakes to the hospital. This is where my Georgetown Cupcake addiction began. Every special occasion in the hospital, we were treated to these little loves and they are truly little gifts when trapped in a hospital room. I know one of the mom's I interacted with today was thrilled to receive and eat these cupcakes. As she said, you get stressed out in the hospital and you turn to sugar. ABSOLUTELY! I say it all the time. Forget the granola bars and healthy snacks. They really don't work. 

After the girls hid the eggs, then the hunt began! As you can see Sarah was assisting this little fellow. This little guy knew how to maneuver around and pick up eggs despite being tethered to a large IV pole and having his hand attached to a board, to keep his PICC line secure. 

Each of the children had their own style about them that they used to hunt and capture eggs in their basket. It was wonderful to see and experience. Some children looked for the eggs that were placed in more obvious locations and others went for the more challenging and hard to find locations. Like this young girl. What was so great about all of this is the kids really listened to Jess' instructions and tried not to take more eggs than their basket would hold. Thereby leaving eggs for the other children. In one particular case, I saw a young girl taken eggs out of her own basket and re-hide them because she was concerned there wouldn't be enough for a young patient who was about to enter the playroom. To me this act of kindness was noteworthy. 

I just love this particular scene! When I saw it, I had to snap it. I sat on this bench so many times when Mattie was a patient. In fact, this was exactly where Mattie did his Easter Egg Hunt in 2009. 

This is another great scene in the parent lounge. This is typically where it gets frenetic with searching and finding. Clearly there was great success by all. 


But I would have to say one of the most memorable moments for me occurred inside of a patient's room. I waited outside the room while two students went inside to deliver eggs to a young male patient. The patient couldn't have been more than 4 or 5. The rooms are small and the patient was in the midst of having a physical therapy session in his room. So there was already a lot going on in his small two by four of a room, including medical equipment and a hospital bed. In any case, through the window of the room I could see that this little boy wasn't engaged with this physical therapy, nor was he doing his exercises. However, once the girls came in with the eggs and then hid them, he seemed to spring to life. He was up on his feet, using his arms, reaching up and down, and moving his body. At that point, I could see that the physical therapy was trying to engage him and took advantage of the fact that the eggs were really incentive tools to get this child to comply with therapy. I would imagine to those observing this just seemed like a fun, adorable, and nice thing to do. That we brought this little boy some joy and happiness. But actually I was profoundly moved by what I was seeing. 

I was moved because today I was transported back in time. It could have been 2009. Replace this boy with Mattie, replace the physical therapist with Anna (Mattie's physical therapist), and replace Katie with Linda (Mattie's child life specialist)! This is a scene that plays over and over in my head. Today's example was what coordinated care is all about, this is the type of care I saw Linda constantly implementing in the hospital and applying to Mattie. Coordinating the minds and hearts of two professionals together for example to do what was in the patient's best interest. What do I mean by that? Well Mattie had to do physical therapy to maintain some sort of mobility and muscle strength, however, there was NO WAY Mattie was going to do this without it being engaging and fun. Linda understood that quite well, whereas Anna did not initially. Linda had to bring Anna around to seeing this and together using many child life techniques integrated into Mattie's physical therapy sessions, Mattie began to be an active participant. Just like I saw with this child today. The beauty of child life is it is a profession that understands the developmental level and ability of children and teens and can help design strategies to that level to help alleviate fears, stresses, and other concerns. It was actually bittersweet in a way to relive these memories because unlike so many of the other activities I did in the hospital today, this one in particular reminded me the most of Mattie.