Thursday, August 16, 2007

Cardinal Glennon and a Quick Word

Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center kicks ass. That's about the best way I can think of to describe this place. Unique. That's another word. From the moment we arrived, until now as our stay here is winding down to the last day or three, the people here have been exceptional. All I can think of is that they are very strict in who they hire.

Since I've worked in healthcare, I've never really been a huge fan of coming to pediatric hospitals, simply because occasionally my tunnel vision can break and I will occasionally accidentally look around me and see a kid... well.... in Andy's shape. It has always scared me, hoping to God that it wasn't my kid.

But this perspective has changed. I've always known that these kids were being helped, but I don't know, it's just different now. I can't say I'm glad that it's my baby there in the bed hooked up to tubes and wires, but I'm certainly glad that he's here of all places. Now that I see it from a different perspective, I see all of the good that's happening around here.

Everyone from RNs to lab techs to cleaning staff to oncologists and even surgeons have been great. If you've ever been hospitalized you know that you are treated with compassion, but in the end your are just a patient. Especially to the surgeons of all people. This is far from the case here at Glennon. He is treated by everyone as if he is their own child. Everyone is like this, including the staff at the Bob Costas Center, the MRI techs, nurses, and doctors, the 4th floor nurses and staff, the surgery team, and the PICU nurses. Yeah, everyone.

No offense to any surgeons who may be reading this, but surgeons are generally fairly cold people. Sure they're compassionate to a degree, but I think they tend to see us as a collection of working parts that constitutes a whole patient, rather than a living, breathing human. At least this has been my experience. Not so here at Glennon. His surgeon, along with all of the surgery team who has seen him from time to time, have been excellent. His surgeon even led a prayer with us before surgery. Needless to say, Julie and I were stunned.

I'm not really sure what else to say about this place. You'd have to be a patient or a parent here to really understand just how unique and special this place is. Like I've said in the past, I now know that he is in the best possible place he can be. And I also keep saying that this entire experience has completely changed the way I look at my job, seeing as how I work in the healthcare sector. For the better of course.

Now a quick word about something completely unrelated. I'm getting e-mails saying "Hey, you need to copy-edit your posts!" Nah. That takes away the spirit of what I'm doing. I'm posting what pops into my head, and it's therapeutic for me. I don't care if it's misspelled or whatever else, I'm posting it. Remember, keeping you all informed is the secondary purpose of this blog, the primary purpose is for me to put down my thoughts, hence the stream-of-consciousness writing style.

Audiologists are here to give him a hearing test prior to chemo. Once this is finished, chemo will begin. Gotta go. I hope this post meant something to you and you remember it if you ever need to take your child or grandchild to a pediatric hospital in the St. Louis area.

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