You have all heard me say briefly how thankful and relieved I have been for the team of doctors God placed around me as well as the incredible staff here on 3NE and in D3W ICU. If you have spent any time in the hospital at all you know how much of a difference a good nurse/doctor/pharmacist/tech/RT/cleaning etc or bad nurse/doctor/pharmacist/tech/RT/cleaning can make in your stay. Jord teases me that I can talk to anyone, but I figure if I make friends with everyone involved in my care life goes much smoother! They have all gone above and beyond here and I literally have gotten half of their phone numbers or am friends on facebook now and lots of them have checked out my blog. Many have seen the business card I finally made:
And then asked, "Does anyone ever pay you to come see your horses/or ride??" When I told one of my docs (I won't tell which one on here cause I'm already gonna be in trouble cause the nurses and other docs are teasing him!!) that I would take him out to see my horse (Is that OK Momma??!!) he said he was afraid of horses. ;) I know many people are simply because they are so big and they haven't been around them--they don't see what gentle giants they are!
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| My 2 year old nephew, Hunter, giving Buddy a hug. :) |
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| As a kid, I would take him to a grassy spot and lay on his back like this and read a book while he ate grass, or I'd lay on his back and look at the stars at night. :) We have such an incredible bond of trust! |
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| My first ride last year after starting my vestibular rehab--you can't tell in the picture, but I was feeling like I was on a storm tossed sea but Buddy took the turns so gingerly and KNEW I wasn't myself...horses are simply AMAZING! |
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| Loving on "My Old Man" |
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| Laughing because Mom tried to do the same thing on Goldy and he took advantage of it and put his head down to get some weeds and she almost fell off. ;) |
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| During my third Psychosis in 2013...seeing my horse always made me feel better! |
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| Mom holding me on Rammy when I was probably 2. |
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| When Buddy and I were MUCH younger...19 years younger to be exact! |
As usually happens when I mention horses I got a little off topic....back to the incredible staff and team of people around me. :) I just wanted to publicly thank each and everyone of you--I would try and mention names, but I would forget someone and feel bad lol. Being in the hospital for 19 of the last 30 days isn't exactly the way I planned my February and March, but God obviously had other plans, as often happens. Everyone here that has helped me in any way, shape, or form, please feel my heartfelt thanks! I love each and everyone of you!!! Living with PCD has many challenges, but there are also many blessings--one of them getting to meet incredible people from all over the world--that is one of the awesome things about being in a teaching hospital. I know some people don't like to be here cause you get asked a million questions, but it presents such a wonderful opportunity to educate more people about PCD and rare diseases in general. My hope is that as they go on and establish careers in the medical field that they will always have in the back of their minds that when you hear hoofbeats, most of the time it is a horse, but every once in awhile you get surprised by a zebra. I am that zebra in a horse world. Doctors--THANK YOU for taking the time time to truly listen to me and respect the fact that I have lived with this for 32 years and have a good working knowledge of my body and what it can and cannot tolerate. Thank you for listening and contacting my psychiatrist when I was headed to the ICU so we had a back up plan in case it went poorly and you had to give me steroids--praise God we didn't have to use it, but the point is you LISTENED and had a plan at the ready. I no longer feel like I have felt for the last 32 years--that I fell through the cracks and balls got dropped and I ended up with another serious adverse rxn and more brain damage. I can tell you right now, you are right up there with UNC in Chapel Hill in Raleigh, NC where I was diagnosed and that is saying something because they are the leading research center for CF and PCD.
Nurses and PCT's: Thank you for loving on me--holding my hair while I threw up, getting me wash cloths, explaining the ICU process so it made it less scary, reacting quickly, and making me and my family feel as comfortable as possible for being in the hospital. I know you probably have gotten me 100's of cups of ice water at this point lol and I truly appreciate it. For helping me walk, listening to me when I'm emotional and crying, and truly CARING for me. For singing me Happy Birthday--it was all I could do to keep from crying in that moment. For signing my birthday banner and moving me from room to room--with all the stuff I have here moving once was a feat--but 5 rooms this time around to make me more comfortable is going above and beyond. Pharmacists--thank you for explaining things to me and making sure I understood and verifying all my home vitamins so I can still take things that help my body fight the infections. Cleaning friends, thank you for keeping my room clean--I know you may often go over looked but I REALLY appreciate you and miss you the most when I go home--my trash doesn't magically disappear there lol.
I want you all to know that I praise God for each and everyone of you and will spend eternity thanking Jesus for you and your selfless service to me. I love you! And feel free to come hang out anytime in the next 7 days....and my hubby doesn't know it yet, but maybe we could throw a "hospital open house" when I get better! I've been making LOTS of plans with LOTS of people sitting here in this room, so we'll see what God's plans are! I'm praying that next February we can have some sort of Rare Disease Day event so keep that in the back of your minds...and I'm still praying one day I can have that Equine Therapy Stable because horses are the best and I want to share them with everyone of you!! :)
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My Mom's college roommates son, Nick, who was my inspiration for Equine Therapy. Goldy was such an incredible horse--we had to put him down several years ago at the ripe old age of 33...we miss him SO much!
Praising Him for ALL of you!
Rachelle :)
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