Children's Hospital

It was just a routine doctor's appointment. I walked down that colorful lobby corridor toward the directory, and I almost totally lost it. “Hold it together Kelly; this isn't our sentence... yet.”  

Children's Hospital is an AMAZING organization. As a student at BCOM, I spent every Tuesday night as part of my Christian Service volunteering at the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital. I'd hold babies who just needed love, play with kiddos who just needed interaction, sit and watch TV with teenagers who just needed someone else to hang out with, or if I had the sniffles, I wouldn't go near the kiddos and I'd stay downstairs in Volunteer office and do all sorts of administrative stuff (craft preparations and what-not) to help out. And by visiting Children's month after month I got to see how they approached hospital care for kids. How they made the glummest of circumstances sunnier. And I conclude that it is truly one AMAZING organization.

And then our friends had little Jaeden 2 months early, and he was admitted to the Children's remote NICU at Good Sam here in Phoenix. They had a private room and a place for mom and dad to sleep so they could be near him. The set-up was fantastic given their situation, which was one I was too familiar with having had to wait 10 days for Natalia to come home after her stint in the NICU on our side of town (not at a Children’s facility). So again, I was impressed by how great Children's Hospital took care of their patients.

Being such a fan, you’d think that visiting their campus for some test results would be no big deal right?

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It was just a routine doctor's appointment. The Children's Hospital campus was really large and had a lot of buildings. I wasn't sure where to park to be close to whichever building we were going to. I hated this. I hated having to drive across town for a bi-annual check-up, but it was the end of the year and all appointments on our side of town at our normal office were booked up. I reminded myself I was lucky to get in at all.

I drove around, did a u-turn and was just about to roll down my window and ask a nurse sitting on bench, evidentially taking a break or at the end of her shift, where building E was, when I saw it on the side of the building above her head. Whew, at least now if I could just find a parking spot, I knew where I was headed. But once I knew which building to go to, parking was easy too.

As we walked toward the doors I saw the long name of the building. I can't remember it now, but beneath the name listed that it was a treatment center for some pretty serious conditions totally unrelated to why we were there. I felt my nerves flicker though. I reminded myself, we weren't even going into the actual hospital, it was just a building on campus.

And then I walked down that colorful lobby corridor toward the directory, and I almost totally lost it. I HATE THIS PLACE. Fear gripped me and I imagined this place being our life. I imagined the appointment going badly. I realized that while I value everything beautiful that Children's Hospital has to offer that I never want anything to do with it ever again personally - not for my family. And my heart quickened and I almost broke into tears standing in front of the elevators, weak-kneed. So, I looked down at the happy toddler in my arms and reminded myself that this was NOT the time to lose it. “Hold it together Kelly; this isn't our sentence... yet.”

I pushed the button “up” and as the elevator doors dinged open, we simply walked in.

The office waiting room was fine. A little older and worn than I’d expected. And large. It had a play area for Natalia though which I thought was nice. I filled out the sheets and sheets of paper work, even though everything was the same. The nurse called us back after only a few minutes. Natalia weighed 23 lbs (I noted that she had weighed 24 lbs the week before, when we’d had the EKG done, but that’s probably no big deal, right?). After all the usual prelim stuff, we dressed Natalia in the cutest little green hospital dressing gown and laid her down for an echocardiogram. I kept her pre-occupied so she wouldn’t pull on all of the cords. She handled it all really well, which made it a lot easier on me.

And then we waited for the doctor. I tried to keep Talia busy and happy, but she was starting to get in a grumpy and temperamental mood. Her patience had worn thin, not from the tests, but from being confined to the little room.

Then the doctor came in. He asked a few questions. Then gave us the test results… everything was great - still fully operational. And the best part - we can wait two years before we need to come back for another check-up. I wanted to cry again. Two years? We went from every six months, to TWO YEARS between needing visits to monitor her condition. She’s still okay. Treat her like a normal health child, because she is one. THANK GOD!

DEEP DEEP sigh and a prayer of gratitude to my Lord. Children’s hospital won’t be our second home. I can take her and drive far away from this place and not worry about coming back any year soon.  

I am grateful for the services that Children’s Hospital provides… so long as they are for others.

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If you're wondering about Natalia’s condition, she was simply born with a bicuspid aortic heart valve. A normal heart valve is shaped like a Mercedes Benes sign (see the image below). It has three flaps for 1) allowing blood flow through and 2) to seal tight afterward so that there isn’t any “backwash” in the blood flow. Natalia’s valve only has two flaps. It is still fully functional at present, which means that she is fine and she may always be fine; it’s just something to monitor. Some people who have a bicuspid valve go their entire lives and NEVER have a problem– they don’t even know they have one (we only discovered her condition because of her other issues at birth, all of which she has fully recovered from). For other people the valve begins to weaken and after time will need to be replaced. The great news is that as humans, we do the most growing in the first two years of our lives. The fact that Natalia has had no change as far as her valve's functionality is a great sign. It makes the likelihood of her needing surgery in the next 10 years a lot less.

Image courtesy of http://www.aorticvalvereplacement.net/aortic-heart-valve-disease-causes-%E2%80%93-congenital-acquired.html