Big Day for our Family

I made a choice when Hunter was in the hospital to use this experience to help others.  I think we are given challenges in our lives for a purpose.  I know how I have personally grown from the life that we now live, but I also want to use it to help make a change in others.

A couple of months back I was asked to speak to a group of first year med students at UofA's Phoenix campus. They just ended their cardio-pulmonary-renal block and the title of the session was "The Impact of Heart Disease on Parents and Families".

I have been preparing our story and really contemplating the message that I wanted to deliver.  Congenital Hear Defects (CHD) have forever altered the course of our lives.  We also have some very real experiences with and exposure to physicians and hospitals.

This morning finally came and it was time to deliver our story.  All of my boys were in tow.  Corben found one of the student's laps to sit on and flirted with multiple other girls.  Hunter crawled around everywhere and even climbed the stairs in the lecture hall (his first time climbing stairs!).  Steve provided his perspective at the end and also answered questions during the Q&A with me.

I spoke from my heart and truly wanted to get the message across that while they will be learning the clinical side of their patients' care, the families and even patients themselves have real lives and real memories that make up their personal side.  I encouraged them to remember that and to allow themselves to get to know the patients and families on a real level and use them as members of the team in the care plan.  I know when we were valued as members of Hunter's team, we had so much more trust and respect for the doctors than when we were not valued.

I made a video to introduce our story that we showed at the beginning.  I wanted to share it here.  Enjoy :)