June 22, 2011 Wednesday Oak Harbor, WA<\/p>\n
MADE IT\u00a0 TO BLAINE, WA \u2013 2 CORNERS DOWN, 2 TO GO<\/p>\n
Monday morning I went to the Shriners Hospital in Portland \u2013 another challenging, encouraging experience. In the next day or two I will upload to my photo bucket page a variety of pictures, some that tell more than words \u2013 pictures of yet more rows of little feet and legs, waiting to help normalize children who just want the chance to be kids.\u00a0 As in Sacrament, I was entranced by the Motion Analysis lab.\u00a0 I saw a video of a young boy moving across the room with a gait I cannot describe; as best as I understand, he had a birth defect & his kneecaps were on backwards.\u00a0 After intricate studies and cross-discipline conferences, the surgeons performed corrective work.\u00a0 The second video showed him walking with a gait that was normal!!\u00a0\u00a0 I also saw photos of a child with a birth defect that results in one leg significantly shorter than the other, to the point that the foot on the short leg is roughly level with the knee on the good leg.\u00a0 The doctors at Shriners perform surgery on the short leg that includes turning that foot so that the anklebone can act as a knee.\u00a0 The prosthesis attaches to rotated foot, and the child has the benefit of movement at the knee level.<\/p>\n
I had an interesting conversation with a tech in the prosthesis lab who explained that she attended a technical college and received an Associate of Arts Degree in prosthesis, that there are only a handful of such schools in the country, and she particularly enjoys what she does.\u00a0\u00a0 So I learned of a career choice I had never considered, one for which there is a strong demand and one that \u201cpays back\u201d to our society.<\/p>\n
The Shriners Children\u2019s Hospital in Portland has recently expanded their facilities and thus has the staff and services for more children than they currently serve.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it a positive note to learn that a medical facility can provide more<\/em> free and critically important services to children?<\/p>\n I left the Shriners Hospital, again \u201cbeing run out of town\u201d by another biker and member of the motorcade from the local Shriners.\u00a0 I needed all the help I could get negotiating that city traffic!\u00a0 Soon I was safely headed north on Interstate 5 and my escort waved goodbye.\u00a0 The traffic was OK until I got up into Seattle, just in time for the 5pm rush hour.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why anyone would voluntarily drive in that craziness on a routine basis. After getting turned around my requiste number of times, I stopped for the night at a motel near the Ronald McDonald House.<\/p>\n Tuesday morning I toured the Seattle Ronald McDonald House, and the experience made up for all the traffic.\u00a0 Ronald McDonald Houses (RMH) around the country provides housing for the families of children who are hospitalized or in need of intensive outpatient care.\u00a0 The facilities are set up something like a motel but with many expanded services.\u00a0 Some people associate the Ronald McDonald House exclusively with the McDonald\u2019s food chain and assume the RMH is fully funded by McDonalds.\u00a0 However, McDonald\u2019s provides approximately 20% of the annual budget and the balance comes from the community.\u00a0 In other words, the RMH relies on your help to stay in the business of helping families.<\/p>\n This Ronald McDonald House (RMH) primarily serves the Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital. \u00a0Because the Children\u2019s Hospital serves a large population of children with cancer and those requiring bone marrow transplants, the average length of stay for a family at the Seattle RMH is 40 days.\u00a0 There is a separate building on the grounds in which the families of children receiving bone marrow transplants live.\u00a0 They are kept separate to help insure the children are not exposed to germs from the general population.<\/p>\n It is common for the sick child to complete in-patient care and need extended services on an out-patient basis, so then the child simply moves in with his or her family there at the RMH.\u00a0 The family stays together, and the child moves on with treatment.<\/p>\n The main house was, of course, clean, modern, and well maintained.\u00a0 Some of my favorite touches include \u2013 a room for teenagers to hang out in, equipped with game machines, TVs, etc. and a professional graffiti artist painted the walls!\u00a0 Then there\u2019s the theater, provided by Rashard Lewis, a professional basketball player formerly with the Seattle Sonics.\u00a0 The individual that does the playgrounds for the McDonald chains provided the indoor playground for young kids; the large tree and adjoining bridge are soft to the touch and beautifully colored.\u00a0 And the extra touch provided by volunteers is evidently everywhere.\u00a0 The grounds are beautiful and are an on-going gift from volunteers – a group of master gardeners.\u00a0 A group of quilters makes and gives a quilt to each family as they check in; several people knit hats for the children who have lost their hair to chemo; others decorate pillow cases for the kids; a group of women bring their sewing machines to the House and mend whatever is needed; various groups and clubs cook meals for the residents several times a week.\u00a0 Therapy dogs pass through, searching out lonely people of all sizes; there\u2019s a homework club, volunteers that come to help the kids stay current with their schoolwork.<\/p>\n My grandson was critically injured in an accident 4 years ago and spent 9 days in pediatric intensive care; his parents lived a nightmare no parent wants to imagine.\u00a0 During that time, his parents were able to drive back to their home, less than 30 miles away.\u00a0 As I sat in the waiting rooms over those days, I listened to the stories other parents shared, parents who did not live close to the vital medical care their child required, parents who were able to be close to the hospital by staying at the Pensacola Ronald McDonald House. And so I know a little of the trauma a family experiences when a little one is critically ill; though my family did not have to rely on the services of the Ronald McDonald House, I want to help insure it is there for any parent living that nightmare.<\/p>\n I left the Ronald McDonald House and headed north on Interstate 5 to Mukilteo WA where I caught the ferry to Whidbey Island.\u00a0 I was the only motorcycle on the ferry so I was dead center at the front of the bow, an impressive seat from which to watch the Puget Sound go by.\u00a0 The ferry ride was too short; the bike ride up the island was also.\u00a0 As I headed north on WA 20, I rolled through miles of pastoral lands, then thought, \u201cMust be getting close to the water again — I smell mud flats.\u201d\u00a0 Sure enough, I rounded a couple of corners and there was the water, at low tide.\u00a0 I rode and grinned \u2018til I made it to my friend Jim\u2019s in Oak Harbor.<\/p>\n My initial plans were to leave today\/Wednesday, but my passport finally came into Pensacola and I want to cross over into Canada before I get to the Atlantic.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t figure out the geometry to have it mailed somewhere in the mid-west, general delivery, so my sister-in-law has overnighted it here. Today I rode up to Blaine for the second of the four corners.\u00a0 In route, I had the oil changed on the bike & my tires checked (he said they\u2019re wearing in the middle!! Not a good thing.\u00a0 Obviously I\u2019ve spent too much time on the Interstate).\u00a0 Then I took the obligatory picture of my bike at the Blaine, WA post office, and stopped for a few minutes in the small town.\u00a0 People often come up to me to talk \u2013 what do you expect when they see a grandmother on a big bike, loaded to the gills.\u00a0 So I wasn\u2019t surprised when a man, maybe mid-40\u2019s, smiled and read the placard on my front windshield and said, \u201cWhat\u2019s a \u2018gypsy judge\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 I explained my 4 corners 4 kids, and he let out an easy chuckle.\u00a0 He said, \u201cMe too, sort of.\u00a0 I\u2019m hitch hiking though.\u00a0 I left Sarasota, Fl. 14 days ago and hitch hiked up here.\u201d\u00a0 I realized he\u2019d gotten to Blaine quicker than I had!\u00a0 He said his trip was one of his bucket-list items, that traveling clean-shaven and with an American flag made it a different trip than some hitchhikers experienced.\u00a0 He said he\u2019d had 45 rides, had come diagonally across the country (see there \u2013 I could have made it in 14 days if I came that way); and that he thought he might go on up to Alaska but he was getting tired.\u00a0 So from Blaine he was heading south and east, aiming at Sarasota.\u00a0 As he walked off, he said, \u201cGive me a lift if we pass down the line – if you think I\u2019ll fit on your bike,\u201d waved and turned a corner.<\/p>\n I headed south on Hwy 11, the Chuckanut Hwy.\u00a0 What a beautiful ride! The road follows the coast line & is blanketed with fir and cedar which are often covered in green moss while large ferns grew everywhere \u2013 further proof that this is the \u201cnorth-wet\u201d. Back on Hwy 20 I stopped for gas and met a woman coming out of the bathroom.\u00a0 She was pretty much my size, height, weight, and age \u2013 except she moved with difficulty on a walker, and I was dancing around the country on an over-sized dream.\u00a0 Just in case I need to be reminded how very luck I am.<\/p>\n Hwy 20 crosses Deception Pass, an amazing waterway that connects Skagit Bay with the Strait of Juan de Fuca.\u00a0 I stopped, of course, for pictures and was treated to an aerial dance by a pair of mature bald eagles.\u00a0 I rode back to Jim\u2019s, grateful and grinning.<\/p>\n Tomorrow after the FedEx package arrives, I\u2019ll head east on Hwy 20 and cross the Cascades.\u00a0 Yeah!!!!\u00a0 But it\u2019s a very, very long way from here to Maine\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" June 22, 2011 Wednesday Oak Harbor, WA MADE IT\u00a0 TO BLAINE, WA \u2013 2 CORNERS DOWN, 2 TO GO Monday morning I went to the Shriners Hospital in Portland \u2013 another challenging, encouraging experience. In the next day or two … Continue reading