Hospital smiles

Since Sunday night our littlest daughter has been ill. By Thursday after no food or liquid intake we had a hospital visit. We didn't want to spend the day and possible evening in the emergency room, nor did our Pediatrician. The Pediatric unit was full. Our Pediatrician is absolutely amazing. She called us three times plus texted me on her day off and arranged for us to be seen in the Pediatric unit. A doctor that truly cares and has compassion for her patients and families. In the twenty four years of raising children, I have never met a doctor like our Pediatrician! Our day at the hospital was interesting. Our daughter started to perk up, and then our doctor checked in her ears. Then there was broccoli!

Of course the broccoli wasn't the cause of her illness although it was amusing enough. I explained to the doctor that all her body holes are used sometimes for storage. Broccoli is one of our daughters favorite foods! So there was a little piece of broccoli lodged inside her ear. They tried taking it out with tweezers and our daughter was not going to tolerate it. So I basically explained we have the cure at home. A vacuum cleaner. My husband makes a straw attachment at the end of the vacuum hose and it works perfectly. For rocks up noses. To clean belly buttons and to suck out broccoli from the ears! The doctors including the student doctor laughed and admitted we should patten it! After being discharged my daughter and I traveled through the hospital halls to get where my van was parked. An elderly man and his daughter were sitting off to the side, enjoying the sun coming in from the window.  He was fragile, in his nineties sitting in a wheelchair. My daughter was calling out to him while we were passing. I parked my daughter (also in a wheelchair) next to this elderly fellow and we said, "Hello" I was explaining to my daughter that he was in a wheelchair too. My daughter kept pointing to herself yelling out her name. That's how she introduces herself. The elderly fellow that could barely talk or move lifted out his hand onto my daughters lap. My daughter laid her hand on his. It's a moment I will never forget. The elderly mans daughter started to tear and said, "He hasn't smiled in days" and this man was smiling. My littlest daughter with her compromised immune system, very weak herself from keeping nothing down for four days was perky and interacting with someone who needed it. It was truly an amazing moment. Our littlest daughter is very special. She has this light about her that captures every eye. Maybe herself is a personal healer - just her energy, her simplistic innocent nature brings out the best in people. She definitely made a difference today during her own hospital visit, she brought out hospital smiles and even with the broccoli in her ears! I still and will always believe things happen for a reason. Our daughter falling ill is never pleasant but for this hospital visit was not only a positive one, it will forever touch my heart.