Tag: featured-2

Life happens. Isn’t it funny how people use that phrase when something disappointing or bad happens?

Four months after returning from the leave I took from work to care for my father, and shortly after my 10 year work anniversary, I received the sad news that due to a company reorg, my position was being eliminated. 

While finding out I was losing my job was shocking and difficult to hear, I walk away with gratitude for my time there and the flexibility the company provided me to care for my father.

In the 10 years I spent there, I learned a ton, both professionally and personally, and developed life long friendships that I will forever treasure.

I’ll always value the professional relationships and connections I made there as well, but while relationships do matter, unfortunately when it comes to running a business, they are not unconditional, which brings me to my decision for my next chapter.

In most cases, for those of us fortunate enough, the one unconditional thing we can rely on, is love and support from our family. They are there for us to share in our successes and lift us up when we struggle. We, in turn, are there for them.

In that vein, I’ve decided to embrace this opportunity as a chance to be there on a full time basis for my father, who still needs a lot of support as he continues to make head way in his recovery from brain cancer and all of the ailments that came along with it.

I’m officially now a stay at home daughter, which I believe is as important a role as a stay at home parent. I have the chance to make the latter years of my father’s life full of joy and laughter and potentially even lengthen those years, while providing relief to the rest of our family members who can rest easy knowing he’s in good hands.

So, with this change, I’m picking up my old blogging gig again. I’ll be continuing to share the adventures of this father/daughter duo, focusing on living every day to the max, appreciating the beauty in life and ensuring wellness of the mind body and soul is our number one priority. Thanks for being a part of our journey.

A HEALING ENVIRONMENT

We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to live so close to one of the greatest hospitals and medical institutions in the world.  People travel from all over the globe to Johns Hopkins Hospital to receive treatment from physicians that are the best in their fields.  We’re there often enough that we’ve seen a lot of people from different countries and cultures, many with translators in tow, and this always reminds us how lucky we are to live only 20 minutes away.  Hopkins’ reputation is renowned enough that I don’t need to spend time rattling off its impressive stats. Everyone knows it’s one of the best medical institutions with cutting edge medicine and world class doctors.  That being said I’d be remiss though if I didn’t take a moment to express how absolutely amazing my father’s doctors and therapists have all been.  The care he has received from them has gone way above and beyond every expectation.  Their treatment plans are thoughtful and they approach his care from a perspective of his overall well-being. They truly care and are invested in his recovery to the point that they make themselves available to me for questions or advice when needed.  They are kind, approachable, and personable. We simply love them.

We’re at Hopkins a lot – multiple times a week for speech, PT and OT, monthly at the Bayview campus for psych, social work and spinal specialists and several times a year to check in with his oncologist.  We’ve become so comfortable and familiar with Hopkins that getting there and navigating the campus are no longer big deals at all.  What used to seem like a mammoth maze-like institution, now feels as familiar as your local grocery store and just like the cashiers or the person behind the deli counter may know you, the staff there recognizes us.   This is probably because my dad and I tend to walk around with a big grins greeting everyone. Hopkins becoming a mainstay in our lives means it’s something my father talks about and thinks about a lot.  Daily, he shares interesting musings, ideas, thoughts or ponderings that have gone through his head. Eventually I will create a page on the blog dedicated to these, but for now, here are a few that center around Hopkins:

• I’d like to write a book about Johns Hopkins himself, traveling through time to visit his hospital as it exists now. Can you imagine his reaction?
• What do you think Baltimore would be like if there was no Johns Hopkins Hospital?
• I have an idea for a murder mystery.  Patients at Hopkins are being admitted but they are never checking out – they are being murdered by one of their own doctors.  (sidenote – this idea came to him after a visit with the only one of his doctors that he is not particularly fond of and I’m pretty sure he was the villain my father imagined in his story)
• Don’t you think they should put up some more pictures of Johns Hopkins where he doesn’t look like such a stick in the mud?

One of the things though, that we find so special about the hospital has nothing at all to do with its reputation, it isn’t listed among the reasons Hopkins is so highly rated and it’s not the reason people come from far off lands to be treated. It’s the thoughtful approach that was taken in designing the building, the art on the walls, the gardens and all of the other beautiful details that were designed for the benefit of the patients and staff.  I believe I may have mentioned in another entry that my father is a lover of arts and culture.  I also know I mentioned that he has a slight loss in his visual field that will cause him to sometimes overlook things right in front of him. What he never misses though (yes, in addition to food) is the opportunity to stop and admire art of any form and art can be loosely interpreted. By his definition, it’s everywhere. He not only notices it, but stops to take it in, nothing is taken for granted or passed over without him stopping to admire it, and share some thoughts.  Even when I’d find this to be a source of frustration as I was trying to hustle him in and out of the building so I could get back to work as quickly as possible, it was always endearing.  I love this about him. It’s almost childlike and I would say it is except for the insights he has on what he’s looking at are always so profound. 

His absolute favorite is a compilation of 26 Monet-inspired photos of the bridge in Giverny and its surrounding garden.  The artist, Spencer Finch, is responsible for the design of many features of the hospital, including the colorful exterior and the bird-friendly brush-stroked glass that serve a dual purpose – to prevent birds from crashing into the glass and to create a ripple like effect as the sunlight filters through inside.  All of these features contribute to what truly is a healing environment which doesn’t go by without notice or appreciation by us.