* I asked my family to contribute to my blog and write out a story about Lizzie, their thoughts on our DBA journey, what your donation means to them and more. I will post the thoughts of my guest bloggers throughout my 12 in 12!
Guest Blogger 1- Kathy Bell aka Kbella aka my mom. Wine enthusiast, Trader Joes advocate and a woman of many talents (sans cooking). My mom has been entrenched in the hospital world for the last 18 years. She can often be found sleeping on cots or hospital couch beds, eating cafeteria food and rattling off lists of drugs, numbers and figures that would make the normal person dizzy. DBA and what it brings with it have become a fabric of life. And never one to live in a world and not try to make it better, she has become a voice for more blood and bone marrow donations as well as a provider of the little things that keep families going with the work of our families foundation and Team Lizzie Bell. It's not easy to figure out the ins and outs of a child with a life threatening illness while making such a difference but she manages to do with grace, fortitude and determination.
Lizzie Journey: (written by Kathy Bell)
When she was small enough for me to still hold her - say- age 1 (Alicia not born yet) I remember entering University Medical Center and walking through the main lobby. The thought came to my mind, what if this Diamond Blackfan Anemia thing takes a long time to resolve, what if we are doing this a long time.... (again, I was walking and thinking.... hard to believe I was doing these two things at once) but I looked around at the people in the lobby - one older man stood out, he was sitting on the couches his skin was sun leather kissed and he looked tired.... there were different cultures in the area - Native American, Black, Hispanic, more....
I thought, well if this is where we are going to live, I am going to fluff the pillows and meet my neighbors.
That is how Lizzie and I became a face around the hospital, we would go to a different department handling her medical care and introduce ourselves, thank them for helping us and then move on. It was either that or read MORE People Magazine and I was not going to sit around all day long, three days a week while waiting for test results or lab counts to come in... just could not waste time sitting any longer... so we would go visit people :-)
Favorites?
- The kitchen staff who made the 'mashy pe-ta-toes' and BROWN gravy
- the nurses in the blood bank
- Uncle Ruben and Tio Tony in Phlebotomy - Lizzie would train the new staff in how to 'stick' a toddler to get blood.... "rub the cottons three times real good...."
- The gift shop!
Meeting our neighbors and fluffing a few pillows is how folks first got to know the little girl who did not make her own red blood cells.
(to donate visit: http://www.dbafoundation.org/donate.php and mention Amy or Lizzie in the purpose)
