“From my grandparents who are in their 80s, to Sophia who is four, and to us as parents, they treat the whole family throughout all of this by keeping everyone informed.”
Sophia’s Story
As told by Stephanie, Sophia’s mother
At three months, our youngest daughter, Sophia, was diagnosed with a rare liver condition. She’s had multiple surgeries and a liver transplant. ThedaCare has served as our provider throughout her post-transplant care. They are always so caring and gentle.
This summer, Sophia got very sick. We took her to the ER where we learned that one of the side effects of her meds can cause food allergies and that Sophia had developed a severe gelatin allergy. From the minute we walked in, until the minute we left, Katie the RN made Sophia her primary focus. A lot of providers see Sophia as a child and proceed to talk to my husband and I. Katie, however, was different. She made every effort to include Sophia in everything, explaining the IV so that Sophia could understand it, and including us so that our worries and fears were addressed.
Katie told Sophia, “The IV that’s going into your arm will be like a straw. When you put a straw into a cup and you take a drink, you’re getting fluids into your body. Because you’re throwing up, you can’t do that, so this will act as a straw to put liquids in your body.” Sophia has had hundreds of labs and IVs, but that day became the first time in her four years that she did not cry for the IV. Since that day, when she goes in for labs, she does not cry, does not flinch, and explains the straw story to the technicians just like Katie explained it to her.
That was huge to us.
