Subject: Hospital Stays

Hi Everyone:

We also agree that lengthy hospital stays are a problem for our angels. While David was in the intensive care unit during his hospital stay in 1993 he developed a bleeding "stress" ulcer. We never gave a thought to the fact that David experienced stress. This was another "eye opener" for us and we immediately began to talk to David about what was happening to help prepare him to deal with the hospital environment.

Since then we try to prepare him for new experiences by telling him what to expect. We had always talked to David but usually to the level of a young child. Now we talk to David as though he can understand everything.

You may have noticed that people have a tendency to talk around a person with disabilities. That is demeaning and condescending. Make sure people talk TO your angel and not about them to you. We have found that this requires a lot of effort for our old habits are hard to break.

Carolyn & Fred Windbeck (David 28)