Thank You Haven House

Well...the last few weeks seem to be catching up with me. Last night I went to bed feeling awful and this morning....not much has changed. Yes...I have tried to sleep! Yes....I eat when I can! And honestly....I am not worrying near as much as I was. Bottom line though.....I am not 20! Shhhh....don't tell anyone! Honestly.....I think my body is just saying......"Whoaaaaa! Slow down a bit!" So that is what I am going to do today. Other than a couple of things I "have" to do....I am doing nothing.

David didn't have an awesome day yesterday. I think he was hurting and although in the past he usually won't tell you where he hurts....yesterday he kept pointing to his feet. He constantly wants to sit doubled forward holding his feet. I am thinking that possibly he is having cramps or charlie horses in his feet. Not sure why as they didn't do anything to his feet, but maybe this is a side effect. At any rate....I will be calling Shriners tomorrow and checking up on this. We are also back to him pulling at his steri strips. I keep hoping they will all just hurry up and dry up and fall off. No such luck though. As they start to dry and unadhere themselves.....David starts to pick at them. So far the ones on his hips have come off fine and the scars are literally works of art. However, the knees have not been so fortunate. David has pulled the strips and caused them to bleed causing scabs. The knees will not be as pretty......but then again.....most little boys end up with scarred knees anyway. At least that is what I keep telling myself.

The weekend has sort of put a snag in our routine and everything has gone sideways. Hopefully if I rest today....then tomorrow we will be back on track. It still feels like life is a little surreal. Maybe in the next week or so....that will all change. As I have said before...it is all about perspective. Maybe a shower will help that perspective along!

So yesterday I talked a little (okay alot) about Shriners and Shriners Hospital St. Louis. Today I am going to talk about another great place in St. Louis.....Haven House. Without Haven House we would have really put everyone in our MO family out when we went for surgery. We had to fly into MO two days early because of the Wings of Hope flight schedule. Had we had to rely on family they would have had to pick us up in Chesterfield....drive us all the way to Bismarck (about an hour), drive us back to St. Louis the next day for blood work, go back to Bismarck, an then have us to Shriners by 9:30 a.m. on the next day for surgery. It would have been a huge amount of driving, gas and inconvenience. Shriners and Haven House made sure this was not the case.

Every time I go to St. Louis...Wichita is put into perspective for me. Although Wichita has predominantly been the biggest city in my hemisphere most of my life, it is nothing but a hamlet compared to the sprawling hugeness of St. Louis. Thank goodness going to Bismarck I only have to outskirt the city or I would constantly be lost. Amongst the hugeness of the city of St. Louis are many huge hospitals and they spread out over the city. Some of these hospitals are specialty hospital where people from all over the country and even the world come for treatment. Because of this....someone was thinking when they came up with Haven House. 

HH from what I was told was originally a children's home. It sits on Olive Blvd. in West County St. Louis. Not unlike Shriners Hospital...it is not ostentatious or fancy. On the contrary it is warm and cozy and gives you the feeling of a home away from home. This is exactly how it is intended to feel. Haven House serves many of the St. Louis area hospitals. It is a place where families can stay who have loved ones in one of the hospitals. Some stays are over night, or a couple of days like ours and then some are much more lengthy. We had the privilege to meet a woman who was from IL and whose husband had had extensive heart surgery. She had been staying at HH for the last six weeks and she told me if not for them and having a home-like place to retreat to every night....she wouldn't have survived this whole ordeal. Amazing!

When you pull up into the circular drive, you see that HH is flanked by restaurants and across the rather (REALLY) busy road looks to be some great shopping. Before you can even step out of your vehicle....there are people coming out to greet you and help you with your bags. Upon entering the building you find a front desk to one side and a cozy sitting area on the other side. They take your information and then you are escorted to your room. HH has two stories. The upper story has several suites with private baths, each room also has tv (the lower rooms do not), and there is a private kitchen and laundry for those staying in the suites. I am sure these are for the more long term guests. On the lower level a hall takes you to a central seating area and doors to the community dining area. Going left or right of this space takes you to two wings on the right and two on the left. Each wing is named after a bird: oriel, robin, etc and each wing has about 6 or 7 rooms. The wings each have a tv room filled with wonderfully over stuffed furniture and a huge tv, a laundry room and a private  fully stocked kitchen. While I did not see any other rooms....ours was wonderful. They all have private baths and our room was big enough that even with all the furniture...David could easily negotiate the room in his wheelchair. Ours had a king size bed and also a twin bed, a huge dresser and mirror, a chest of drawers, a desk and chair and a good size closet. We had no tv, but then again...who cares?! The bathroom too was spacious and fully stocked with shampoo, lotion, etc. The decorations were also wonderful. The beds were covered in beautiful handmade quilts and the rooms themselves felt comfortable and homey.

One of the great things about HH is their extraordinarily good food! Included in your stay is two meals per day (breakfast and supper). There is a little lady that does all the cooking there and she is marvelous. We had chicken breast one night and roast beef the next and it was so so  good. You can eat in the dining room or take a to go tray to your room. If you are late getting back from the hospital (past supper time at 5) then they put your food in a to go box and store it in the frig so you can pick it up and reheat it when you get there. It is just awesome!

Some of the amenities of HH include Wifi, a huge gym which David thoroughly enjoyed, a fully stocked arts and crafts room for kids and families, a kids playroom, a study room with cubicles and a small library, and periodic sitting spaces with tv's for kids and families to enjoy. For being in the city, the views are wonderful and believe it or not...there is wildlife. I saw ducks and geese while we were there and was told by others that they get deer, opossums and the occasional raccoon on the property. It is the best of both worlds....modern convenience with the sense you are just a little bit rural.

One of the nicest things about HH is that even if you drive, once there you can park your car and never have to use it to get back and forth between the hospital. Daily HH offers 4 different shuttle times to the participating hospitals. You have to sign up the day before and the shuttles run at something like 7:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., so you can actually leave and spend an entire day with your family member or come home early if you need to. David and I took advantage of the shuttle when he had to have blood work done the day before his surgery. They have friendly drivers that pick you up and bring you back and make navigating a difficult city a breeze. On Wednesday...since David had to be at Shriners at an off hour (not on shuttle schedule) the Moolah Shrine in St. Louis sent us a beautiful and roomy van with a wonderful Shriner and his wife and they shuttled us to the hospital. It was such a relief that I was not doing the driving!!!!

When leaving HH....they ask you to strip your beds, throw away your trash and make sure you get all of your belongings. Again....just like home! You get all of this for I believe it is $30 per night (much cheaper than any hotel and much nicer too). Luckily for us....Shriners picked up this tab, but even if they hadn't we couldn't have stayed (even at a gross place) for that price. It is just a wonderful wonderful place. Are you catching the wonderful theme here?

I believe the one thing about HH is that one of the participating hospitals has to refer you, but if you have a family member staying at one of the hospitals for any period of time....I am sure that would not be an issue. If you are going to Shriners...that is their place of choice.

So as you can see....Shriners and HH do their best to make sure that even the most trying of situations can be faced with care and comfort. Thank you Haven House for all that you did!