AudreySpirit blog — hospital

Innumerable days were spent in hospitals, in all actuality, years were spent in the hospital. Below are some things only time and experience can teach. Audrey stayed at St. Mary's Hospital/Mayo Clinic, Children's Hospital Colorado/National Jewish, Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, and pictured below is Audrey about 3-4 years old in The University of Kansas Hospital. Click the blue button for our downloadable Hospital Stay Cheat Sheet Checklist! Start Planning for the Hospital Discharge from the Very Beginning Get necessary notes and orders before anyone signs the discharge papers and you leave the hospital. Start keeping a list of things...

Being the parent of a medically complex and fragile child. And all too often absent parent of her brother. The hardest job was my honor, the hardest job inspires AudreySpirit.All Audrey wanted to do was strategize about Labor Day Sales, hang out with friends and start her freshman year of high school. Her older brother, Peter, was also beginning his freshman year away at college. I so wanted to help her get ready for her new school experience and help Peter love college life. I was so tired, I didn’t even feel tired anymore. Tired was just my state of...

The logo is an evolution of a drawing created by Audrey Grace. As Donna recollects: “The logo is an abstract design by graphic artist, Lee Orrison, based on an original artwork Audrey created. Children’s Mercy Hospital's Teen Advisory Board (TAB) was involved in a project to update posters in the hospital cafeteria. As a member of the board, Audrey brought posterboard home from the teen meeting and drew the picture of a cheerful, welcoming and colorful mouse with an elaborate background. At the following TAB meeting, she turned in her mouse poster. It was mounted in a prominent location in...

Family-Centered Care is so important and needs to be practiced as a universal standard to optimize the health and quality of life of each family member of special health care needs children (CSHCN) across the life course of special needs child, their siblings and parents.  I was so blessed to meet Jess Nelson, a LEND Fellow from Minnesota at the 2013 Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) Conference.  She produced this Fact Sheet as coursework last semester https://lend.umn.edu/docs/LEND-Family_Caregiver-FACT_SHEET-9-13-13.pdf Please share your thoughts about the Fact Sheet using the survey link at the bottom of the document.