30 Acts of Kindness Task 7: Be Thankful

During February, I'm celebrating my 30th Birthday with 30 Acts of Kindness suggested by readers.  The point of these posts isn't to "brag" about what I've been doing, but rather to raise awareness about different organizations in Prince William County and share how you and your family can get involved in making our area a better place to live.  If you'd like to join me in any of my assignments, or if you participate in one on your own, I'd love to get your picture and/or story to share!! I'd love to think this is making a difference, and I hope that you'll join me!  

Several of you wrote in and suggested I send some kind of food or treat to nurses at various hospitals.  INOVA Fairfax, INOVA Fair Oaks, and the Birth Center at Sentara, along with NICUs all over NOVA made the list.  Since I'm celebrating my one-year survival from a 16 hour brain surgery (in case you missed that somehow over the last few weeks), I decided I wanted to send something to the doctors and nurses that allowed me to stay alive.

Neurologist Dr. Sheela Meyers would be first on that list.  After months of being told that I had migraines and needed to just deal with it, Dr. Meyers listened to me and ordered the MRI that showed just how wrong the "migraine" diagnosis was.  She's on leave right now, though, so I'm just going to have to make due with giving her massive props on the internet. (edit: She emailed me! How cool is the internet? She's now in Fair Oaks, which is where I guess I'll be schlepping for neuro appointments assuming her new practice takes my insurance!)

After Dr. Meyers, I have to recognize Dr. Vikram Nayar of Georgetown Hospital.  Calm and friendly without being patronizing, Dr. Nayar is the man who performed my marathon surgery with such skill that I was able to leave the hospital walking and talking, however slowly.  He and his staff have been friendly, kind, and compassionate, and we appreciate both them and him so very much.

Finally, the Neurology floor nurses at GUH.  Do you know what massive doses of steroids and pain do to people?  I apparently yelled some things at people that cannot be repeated on a family-friendly blog.  I don't remember this, and I didn't mean to, but these amazing men and women took care of me anyway.  There are no words for how little I would ever want to deal with post-op brain patients, and also no words for how grateful I am that these nurses do.  I know that we have lots of great medical staff in our area, but I would defy you to find better nurses than the ones I had at Georgetown, whether I was in the ER or on the neuro floor. I wish I could remember all of their names but shoutouts to Ron in the ICU, Grace in the stepdown, and Tina in ER.  (Not that they're reading this, but let's pretend)

I know it's their job to take care of people, but I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that the amazing team at Georgetown does it so well. 

I ended up sending Edible Arrangements.  I cannot begin to tell you how lame that seemed as a thank-you to the people who cared for me when I needed it most, but they did dip the strawberries in chocolate, so hopefully that helps take some of the "lame" off, just a little. 

Thanks for the idea, everyone who wrote in!! If I didn't send something to your favorite doctors and nurses, please consider doing so yourself- even if it's just a note, I'm sure that they'd love to know how much you appreciate them!