Pretty Toes

Heather submitted this photo of her toes. A friend painted her toenails while she was recovering from having her appendix removed laparoscopically.

She said, "Now I have really pretty toes even if the rest of me is bleh I can look at my toes and remember that I'm loved and at least I have cute toes."

Great idea, thanks for sharing, Heather!

Updating Family & Friends

I just learned about www.CaringBridge.org, a site that provides free websites to keep family and friends updated in case of major illness.

We set up a Caring Bridge website for my father-in-law after his open heart surgery for an aortal dissection. My mother-in-law and other family members were inundated by calls and emails as family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers learned what had happened. Once the website was up, the calls and emails dropped drastically, allowing them to focus on my father-in-law.

Here are some of the features I liked about the Caring Bridge site:

• There were many different security levels for the site. We chose the lowest security setting, which means that anyone with the website address could see it without registering or needing a password. I liked that the sites aren't searchable by Google and other search engines so someone is not going to find the website without being given the address.
  

• The Journal allows people to register for emails when updates are posted.
  
  
• The Guestbook allows people to write comments, which we printed out and took to the hospital for my father-in-law and mother-in-law to read.

Names in the Sand

Names in the Sand is the work of a woman in Perth, Australia. She memorializes children that have died by writing their names in the sand and taking a picture. This is a picture of her first name, the name of her son that died at birth.

Warm Socks

The most practical gift I received in preparation for a hospital stay was warm, fuzzy socks. They felt nice while I was laying in bed, it was helpful when I had to get up and walk to the bathroom, and it was comforting to wear something that wasn't hospital issue.

I've only had a grand total of two hospital stays, though, so I'm curious to know what other ideas you have of things to do for someone in the hospital.