Someone suggested I post what Ryan’s Beads of Courage look like now that it has been almost a year. If you missed my first post about Beads of Courage in April 2009, click here.
Ryan’s beads have a definite method. I string them by admission (there have been four) and by day. That way, when I look over the strands I can see which days were hard and which were a piece of cake.
Ryan’s first strand from his birth through April 28 is 15 ft. long:
I have not strung Ryan’s strand from his second admission in May for dehydration. He was only there three days and it hasn’t been a priority. The beads and the tally sheet are safely lying together in the ‘bead bin’. I’ll get to it before he’s 10 years old, I promise.
Ryan’s second strand is from his tissue expander surgery June 17 – July 7 is 3.5 ft. long:
Ryan’s fourth strand is from his admission for low sats on July 28th and last through his homecoming on January 8. It is 25 ft. long.
(this is a picture of all three strands together).
Yellow beads signify an overnight stay in the hospital. Ryan has many of those. The rainbow beads signify therapy – OT, PT, Speech or Respiratory. Ryan also has many of those. You can see on the top strand several easy days in a row with only therapy and overnight stays worthy of earning beads.
On the bottom strand, you see three yellow beads with lots of beads in between. These are the day before and the day of Ryan’s Glenn procedure. Aqua is the insertion or removal of tubes – NG (feeding) tube, Foley tube (catheter), ET tube (ventilator), etc. The red bead is for a blood transfusion. The light green is for x-ray, echo, ekg, etc. The black beads are for pokes – shots, IV insertions, blood draws. The heart bead is for….. heart surgery. The purple bead is for certain types of drugs like dopamine – that’s the one he gets his purple bead for so I don’t have a laundry list memorized for that one (yes, I doing this off the top of my head – I’ve had lots of practice). The orange bead is central line insertion or removal. There are three in this picture – probably for an Arterial line, a PICC line and hmmm, not sure the other one. Maybe his art line was oozing so it was removed and replaced in the same day. There is a silver almost off the frame on the right – silver is for any type of dressing change.
There are beads for being in the hospital on a holiday. Help me out here…. I was trying to think what holidays Ryan has been HOME for. He was home for Memorial Day, but I don’t think he was here for any of the others. We have quite a collection of holiday beads. This one is for Halloween. We also have one for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. They don’t give one out for any other holidays. I’m not sure why St. Patrick’s Day made the list!
And this is a picture of my favorite bead. It’s the one we got for DISCHARGE!
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (11)
Part sad, part amazing. Sad that he had to go through all of that, but amazing that he’s made it through so much!! That last bead is the winner though!
Thank you for that. I am a visual person so when I was reading , “O 15 feet that is really is pretty long.”, but then when I saw the picture across the floor of all three it really gives idea of what Ryan has gone through and accomplished with God’s Grace. Amazing.
YEAH – for the discharge bead…I would pin that one on a safety pin and wear it everyday!!
Wow,so many beads.I like the way you aranged that sad for the not so happy ones.Love the discharded one so beautiful….:)
WOW! That is a testimony of how great God is and how great HIS grace is. I told dad this past weekend that you are a very strong woman. And he reminded me that God gives us the grace to go thru the trials that come our way. A yr and a half ago, the docs didn’t expect ryan to get 1 bead. God is good. I love you. Praying for you always.
i love the whole idea of the beads. it’s just neat how you can look at the beads and see the journey… i’m sure the beads will be a lot easier to go through with ryan when he’s older than the technical language would be. it just seems like a neat tool to help children understand what’s going on. and, of course, the silver bead is the BEST. 🙂 love you,
katie
I beadieve that God is awesome.
Awesome thing to have to remember what a journey Ryan has been through! Hopefully, from now on, your bead lengths will be much much shorter!! From your post, I think that the hospital gave you the beads? Are the bead codes universal or did your hospital just make up what each bead stands for? What are the beads strung on? I would love to do this for my youngest daughter…who stayed in the NICU for 2 months. Through time, it is ony natural to forget all the trials and tribulations that were travelled (my husband did keep an e-mail log) but I would love to have this visual reminder for her.
Thinking of you today and hoping Ryan’s CT scan goes well.
~Wendy
yay for the DISCHARGE bead!!! praying for you guys!!!
Wendy – Beads of Courage is a national organization that ‘sells’ their beads and concepts to hospitals. The hospital Ryan goes to participates in the program through their child life/social work services. There is a tally sheet that lists what each bead stands for. If you email me your contact information I will either snail mail you a copy or email it to you depending on what you prefer.
Big Fat Smile on my face for that last one!
WooHoo!
Sounds like wonderful chaos at your house. I pray for your ability to rest and to continue to take in every blessing that you well deserve!
What a Miracle Boy!
Karin