Being in the hospital is no fun, but the day is a little brighter when someone shows they care with a thoughtful gift. Any thing that makes the stay more comfortable or help pass the time is welcome.  After spending many months in the hospital I'm somewhat of an expert patient, so I'm sharing here some of the great gifts people sent.

While I was in the hospital my parents spent hours playing with dolls, but not for fun.  The doll was basically my stunt double, allowing my parents to practice the complicated process of changing my parenteral nutrition infusion, setting the dosage correctly on the pump, and changing the dressings the PICC line insertion in my arm.  The expectation is that once I was discharged, my parents would take over from the nurses and be responsible for this daily process at home. Fortunately for all of us, I was able to start eating solid food again before I went home, but we'll never forget PICC baby.

For more information about PICC lines visit https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/picc-line/about/pac-20468748

The hospital images most people remember from COVID show patients overcrowding hallways, chaotic ICUs, and exhausted staff.  For me, being admitted to a pediatric hospital at the very start of the shutdowns was a brief calm before the storm.  Bracing for the worst, non-emergency procedures were put on hold and hospital rooms emptied out.  Downtown streets were deserted, shops closed, and hospital corridors were eerily quiet.  Of course all that changed quickly and tragically, but I won't ever forget what it was like to inhabit this quiet, foreboding space, when any contact with another human was a calculated risk that could mean life or death.