|
|
|
Care Pages Two
December 28, 2007
|
Jennifer Hoover and Christine Kilpatrick have become fast friends. They each have
a child who’s under the age of five and fighting leukemia. That also means that
at any given month, these Moms spend hundreds of hours in a hospital room. “We come up any time he has fevers and we stay anywhere from three
days to a couple of weeks,”
Jennifer says about her daughter Rebekah’s frequent hospital stays. And the same
goes for Christine’s son Ethan. The moms say people always want to know how their
little ones are holding up. Christine says, “Everybody wants to know how she’s doing but a lot of people feel bad asking because they don’t want to keep bringing it
up and I don’t mind I want people to know what’s going on with her.” Now these moms
have an easy and stress free way to keep their family and friends in the know, thanks
to a computer program called Care Pages. Stacie Margaritis is a Child Life Specialist
with the Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. She says Care Pages has been
a great benefit to the patients and families. “Care Pages is a website program where
patients can go in and do their own personal website which helps them get the word
out about anything they’re going through. It’s nice because that way parents
don’t have to worry about answering the same question ten times they can type it
once and people can go in and check it and comment back if they want.” Christine
and Jennifer try to post daily updates on their child’s Care Pages. They say the
program allows family and friends to stay informed and send well wishes with just
a click of a mouse. Jennifer says, “We got family you know in several different
states that they’re able to get on whenever it’s convenient for them so you know
if it’s midnight they can read it.” As for Christine she says the pages also provide
a written record for Rebekah to look back on someday. “It’s something that will
ultimately make her stronger and I want her to know how many people cared about
her and prayed for her.” Both moms describe the program as a huge blessing that
they are thankful to have access to. Care Pages is a free service and is available
to all patients at the Children’s Hospital of SWFL. The Care Pages websites are
private. People are not allowed to access the websites until they have been cleared
or invited by family members.
|
|
|
|
