A new ritual resulting from 2020: Expressing our thanks to health care heroes

In my most recent post I shared a little about my eight year old’s health journey in 2020. Today, I wanted to follow up on our personal experience with health care heroes over the past 2 years.

Prior to 2019 our exposure to the health care profession was mainly limited to our primary care and specialist appointments. During these brief visits, we did experience the kindness exhibited by doctors and nurses. However, it’s not until we had more complicated health news, surgeries and hospital stays, did we truly grasp the selfless, patient and compassionate nature of those drawn to the medical profession.

While my family has not yet personally experienced COVID-19, we have certainly witnessed the impact on medical care. The changes include some #silverlinings like expanded use of telehealth visits (saving us hours of commuting time to Palo Alto and Sacramento), and the harder to handle like COVID-19 testing before every sedated test, or surgery/hospital stay and very strict visitor policies for pediatric patients (only 1 parent for out-patient procedures/surgeries) and 2 parents for in-patient stays (some hospitals limit 1 parent at a time). (I know & acknowledge visitor policies for adult patients are much harder on families.)

It was during this challenging year that Alexa and I brainstormed on what we could do to show our appreciation and thanks. For me, these doctors have helped my family navigate some very scary news. I honestly do not think there is anything I can do to adequately thank them for their empathy, expertise and outstanding care, but here is the small gesture we came up with:

Before each of the surgeries (July to current), Alexa and I prepare thank you baggies which typically have chocolates, a short hand written thank you (1 sentence written by Alexa) & sometimes a little craft Alexa has made.

Alexa then decides who and when she wants to hand one out. The recipients have varied from the receptionist that has checked us in on surgery mornings, child life specialists, her amazing ICU and acute care nurses to her highly talented surgical teams.

This ritual allows Alexa to focus herself away from her worries & anxiety about the upcoming surgery and onto how she can express thanks to those health care heroes who are helping her body get better and/or are making her hospital stay smooth.

Seeing Alexa hand these out during our stays (and watching nurses, doctors and staff take in these small acts of thanks) is a highlight of our stays – and something I highly recommend trying.

Happy holidays & may we all spread a little more kindness in 2021!