Hospital Day #22 - 12/23/23 PM - Best Day Yet! Treats for all of the U of L Nurses & Staff!
Brittney had her best day yet since her stroke (12 days ago). She slept great and woke up with an appetite. She was surprised by PT taking her out for a few laps and climbing a flight of stairs. Through the day she continued to do well with minimal headaches, good rest, and more energy. She worked independently on some of her speech rehab homework and was even able to watch a little TV.
The giving for the U of L Hospital nurses stations kept rolling in and we are currently at over $11,500! Way to go.
Our hometown stepped up big time with The Sweet Shoppe putting together 35 sets of fudge trays and cookies and Hinton’s Orchard & Farm Market putting together 35 bags of fruit and homemade apple cider donuts. This was a monumental task by two amazing groups of people. If you see any of our friends from the Sweet Shoppe or Hintons, please give them our love! The McDowell clan filled their van to capacity and brought 25 sets of everything to U of L hospital. The other 10 sets are being delivered to Baptist Health Hardin hospital tomorrow (Christmas Eve). Plus we were blessed with some incredible artwork from the McDowell kids that the nurses and staff loved!
The gift cards became a challenge when I discovered, after loading $5,000 of cards in my cart, that Sam’s only allows a purchase of $500 of gift cards per day. I knew I needed $9,000 worth of cards but was unsure how to make that happen. Thankfully a nearby Panera Bread (Middletown) had 600 gift cards available. Their manager and one other worker spent a solid 90 minutes scanning and loading 900 $15 cards. This is a perfect gift for our U of L friends because there is a Panera Bread store attached through their hospital walkway system. As a bonus, Panera threw in $1,800 more in gift cards too! We ended up getting over $11,000 of gift cards to give to the nurses and medical staff of U of L and Baptist Hardin....WOWSERS!! God is so good!!
By about 6pm we had all of the gifts assembled and started getting them to all of the nursing stations we could find across the hospital. They were touched by your love and generosity. We were able to tell them how grateful we were for their selfish service to so many families everyday, but especially over the Christmas weekend.
As we journeyed through the various parts of the hospital….maternity ward, neurological ICU, trauma ICU, surgical ICU, oncology, burn unit, psychiatric ward we were all reminded about how blessed we are. Brittney especially loved getting to visit some of her pervious nurses and units from the 9th and 7th floors. We are so grateful for the care we have received. We thank God for every day He gives us and know that Brittney’s health could be much worse than it is.
I can’t put into words what a blessing you all are to us and to so many medical staff families within U of L (today) and Baptist Hardin (tomorrow). Y’all rock! Thank you for letting Jesus’ love shine through you!
John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. [35] By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (ESV)
