20 Days of Chill 2020 - Show me the Way

Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash

Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill. Today's prompt is 

Show me the Way

I have always been fascinated by medicine. When I was five years, old I had to go to the hospital for hip surgery and stay there for ten weeks. Even though my Mom, who is a Kindergarten teacher, did her best to prepare me, it was a traumatic experience. I felt abandoned and didn't like being poked and prodded by doctors, nurses and especially lab techs. How much blood can they possibly need to draw from a little girl?

Anyway, this all happened a long time ago. I am healthy and happy now. 

I have two things I've been wanting to do that I keep procrastinating though.

One is to get in touch with my roommate from back then. We kept each other company and chatted well after lights out. She certainly made my time more bearable. This is what  I know:

• Her name is Stephanie
• She had trouble with her back
• She's two years older than me

I tried to get my hands on her contact info through the hospital, and even though they were somewhat willing to help, they have changed database systems twice, plus back then everything was on paper, and who knows what happened to that archive. 

I also asked in Facebook Mommy groups.

Can you help? Kidding. Well, it can't hurt to ask?

One of my all time favorite TV series is ER = Emergency Room, and it's not only because George Clooney played Dr Ross. His character was a very ambiguous. 

I became very interested in the conditions and diseases these fictional patients came in for. For a while I wrote everything down: procedures, abbreviations, treatments, medication. 

Which makes me an armchair doctor. Seriously. Name me a your (textbook) symptoms and I will tell you what you have and what you need.

Due to recent events I basically passed my medical board certification by diagnosing my son who is 11 years old with chicken pox... Never a dull moment.

Anyway.

Organ donation and transplantation caught my special interest. Many years ago a lady within my parents' circle of friends donated one of her kidneys to her husband. Both are still doing well, and they are my heroes.

Not every case has a happy end like theirs. Many terminally ill patients are waiting, hoping - and oftentimes running out of time and passing away. 

Some could be saved if people like you and me had advanced directives and / or an organ donor card so our family didn't have to deal with this tough decision.

I like to think it's nice to have a purposeful death by saving other people's lives.

Here's an easy way to register online for organ donation (Switzerland only), I will list other countries at the end of this post: Swisstransplant online registration 

The form even gives you an opportunity to leave a written message and upload a picture for your next of kin. This had me in tears. What do you even say, and who will be around as this potentially applies? I was brave and followed through, and I am glad I finally did. After all it was a new year's resolution I made two years ago...

The reason that sort of prompted this post is a TV documentary I was  watching. The TV crew accompanies a handful of people who are waiting for the new organ that will hopefully save their lives. 

One is a brave little girl, and her condition deteriorated badly, so she was pushed to the top of the priority list, and luckily after a short time she got a call from the hospital. They actually picked her and her Mom up and airlifted them to Geneva - the only place in Switzerland that will do liver transplants on children. 

To my surprise I recognized the doctor who did the surgery! Barbara attended college a year ahead of me. I knew her from around the campus and fraternity parties. She was one of those smart, pretty and successful girls we wanted to hate - because female enviousness - but couldn't, because she was nice, too.  

Almost 20 years later it's safe to say, she outdid herself. Still super smart, sweet, pretty and hugely successful. She is not just a regular doctor, she's the director of paediatric surgery at University Hospital Geneva, professor at the University of Lausanne and assembly member of the ICRC. 

You know how I always like to joke that Albert Einstein and I attended the same college, only a few years apart? Well, I couldn't be more proud to also call her my fellow graduate.

How do you feel about donating your organs? Do you have a donor card or are you registered? Will you do so now?

Organ Donation Registration USA

Organ Donation Registration Canada

Organ Donation Registration Australia

Organ Donation Registration UK

Organ Donation Registration Switzerland

Let me know in the comments below. Hope you come back for 16 more days of chill! Don't forget to visit my fellow blogger's posts over here.

Thursday, January 2: A new decade

Friday, January 3: Beautiful places

Monday, January 6: Is that chicken?

Tuesday, January 7: Show me the way

Wednesday, January 8: Naps

Thursday, January 9: Snow

Friday, January 10: Fri-Yay

Monday, January 13: Social media

Tuesday, January 14: Cheddar

Wednesday, January 15: Dream on

Thursday, January 16: Popcorn

Friday, January 17: Snapshot

Monday, January 20: Last meal

Tuesday, January 21: Battle of the phones

Wednesday, January 22: Sign it in ink

Thursday, January 23: Spam

Friday, January 24: May I take your order?

Monday, January 27: A cocktail, if you will

Tuesday, January 28: Bring me to you

Wednesday, January 29: Oh, thank goodness!