Thursday, July 26, 2007

Bloagthon 07-Why Shriners, Mrs Duck



I figured it might be good to explain a little bit about Shriners Childrens Hospitals. But I also figured it would be better coming from Mrs Duck, since shes the one with experience.

As you can see, Sparky is blogging for a very special organization called Shriners Hospital for Children. Unlike most Children's hospitals, Shriners services are free of charge to all children under 18 years of age that suffer from a special ailment, such as in my case, which was a brittle bone disease. Shriners in Philadelphia specializes in Orthopaedics with residents doing there interships under some of the finest Orthopaedic surgeons in the world.

I was a very fortunate individual, seeith that I have a very rare bone disease that not many doctors were familiar with. When I was diagnosed as a 7 year old, back in the 1970s, there were under 500 total diagnosed cases of my particular disease. And that was across the world numbers. As you can imagine, there were not a lot of doctors lining up to treat me, in fact, most were unwilling to even touch me. Fortunately for me and my parents, we were referred to Shriners.

At the time i was treated at Shriners in Philadelphia, it was a full service hospital and clinic. I can remember spending many days sitting and waiting for doctors to see me, from X-rays and attendings and then the orthopaedic surgeons themselves, there were alot of lines. Now, you would probably think that all that waiting would be a nuisance for a child that was in pain and could not really move. However, that was not the case, many of the greatest moments that ever happened to me happened in the waiting rooms of Shriners. I was able to meet and see other kids that had ailments that were many times more severe then mine was and there stories were something that I will never forget. I always say that Shriners not only gave me excellent care for my many bone problems, but they also gave me my mental health. I was able to see, that while it was extremely painful at times (i will spare you the details) but it also helped me to recognize that I was not alone and that there were so many children out there that had things much worse then I could ever imagine.

When I first signed up and was accepted into the Shriners family, my mom was told that Shriners would benefit much more from me then I would benefit from them. I always feel that my experience is what made me into the adult that I am today and I also know that some of the information Shriners gathered from treating me will help in researching and helping others who are diagnosed for my particular disease.


Don't forget the little button in the right hand corner of the blog if you wish to make a pledge for this weekend and thanks for reading.

10 comments:

Erin said...

Thanks for sharing Mrs. Duck! I do hope that a lot of people are able to donate to an obviously wonderful cause! I'm going into my budget right now to see if I can give just a little... if it is there or comes in the next few days I would be more than willing to share it. So glad you are doing okay today because of Shriners!!

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Duck, thanks for a letter from the heart. I'm so glad to hear that Shriners was there to help! Sparky, I'm glad to know that you are in the Blogathon, and I'm going to link you on today's page as an update. Good luck with it.

Special K ~Toni said...

Good luck!

The Rock Chick said...

Wow! That sounds like one amazing place. Thanks for sharing your story.

I'm going to link to you in a post today, too! I also saw your question on Shelly's site and I'm anxious to answer it!!

Are you making the coffee Saturday night or am I? :)

Jessica

Schmoop said...

You and Mrs. Sparky are good people. Cheers Sparky!!

Lady Jane Scarlett said...

A hearty salute to you both. We're studying what happens to bone chemistry of OI patients, hopefully it'll make a difference. Thank you for telling your story!

Maven said...

Makes me glad I sponsored you:)

Shriners is a great organization!

Christie O. said...

Thank you, Mrs. Duck, for sharing your story! It's so wonderful to be able to give back to such wonderful people who gave you such wonderful care. Blessings to you!

tiggerprr said...

OK I'm mistyeyed...that just doesn't happen. I'm glad that they helped you so! :)

Blaine said...

Grateful for you writing this blog