Bravery Beads

The Bravery Bead project is for children in selected programs at Sick Kids. This program allows each child to collect a different bead for each procedure or event while visiting the hospital. The collection of beads represents the child’s unique and personal journey through treatment.

I finally got a chance to put Jacob`s bravery beads together. Here they are laid out on the floor. As you can see, it`s quite long.

The beads represent the following:

15 Bloodwork / Special Poke
1 Cardiac Catheter
1 CCU Admission
2 Central Line / PORT / PICC Line Insertions
1 Central Line / PORT / PICC Line Rejection
10 Dressing Changes / Bandage Removals
1 Emergency / Ambulance Ride
10 Infusions (Morphine Pain Control)
1 Inpatient Admission
2 Intubation / Extubation
4 IV Starts
2 NPO (Nothing Passes Orally)
1 Pacemaker
1 Satellite visit / Move Up / Transfer to Community Hospital
2 Surgeries
2 Sutures / Staples Inserted / Suture Care
2 Sutures / Staples Removed
8 Tests & Scans
1 TPN (IV nutrition)
1 Transfusion
1 Transition Step-Down
5 Tube Insertion / Catheter / Chest / NG / GTube / NP
7 Tube / Removal / Catheter / Chest / Drains / NG / Gtube / VAC / NP / Wires Out
2 WOW / Special Accomplishment / Recognition
225 Blood Thinner Injections

That`s over 300 beads!! This doesn`t even include the prep work he received at Markham-Stouffville hospital where he was transported from to Sick Kids or the at-home nursing care he received a week and a half after he was out of hospital.

To memorialize this for Jacob, I put them in a shadow box. The centre red beads are all of the blood thinner injections I gave him at home. They will be a constant reminder, along with his scars, of his brave journey in life.

He is truly our little miracle.

He can continue to collect these as he will continue to have appointments with the hospital however I think I want to close these off and say we are good!