Thank you, MEDWISH!

We are so blessed to be aided by an incredible organization called Medwish.

Medwish re-purposes perfectly good, brand new medical supplies that are discarded or donated by hospitals that can no longer use them.  Organizations like ours can apply to receive items that we need from a huge list of available supplies.  We sent Medwish a list of medical items that we use on a regular basis and they sent us what is probably thousands of dollars worth of supplies.  Some very generous volunteers donated their luggage space and carried these items over from the US.  The photo below shows only part of what we received:

 

Our preemies benefited from a large donations of little hats -something we have a hard time finding locally.  Our little preemies often need hats to help maintain a stable body temperature, but most of the hats available in stores are too large and slip down over their eyes.  These hospital nursery hats are PERFECT and we are so happy to have them!

Medwish also sent us a big bag of preemie nipples, which we were desperately searching for.  We used to buy the Gerber brand newborn latex nipples, which are incredibly tiny and perfect for using with preemies who are just learning to nipple feed.  But Gerber has discontinued their product, and we have not found a similar product elsewhere.  Medwish managed to find us just what we needed!

Another item we use in great quantities are colostomy bags.  We usually have several babies at any given time who use these, and while they are not hard to find, they are quite expensive.  It was one of the things on our "wish list" and we were delighted to find they packed those in our box too.

Preemie pacifiers are another specialty item that we need, usually only available from hospital supply companies.  We encourage our tiny preemies to use a pacifier, even before they are feeding from a bottle -  it helps them practice and keeps them interested in sucking.  Regular size pacifiers are too big for most of our preemies, but these are just what we need.

Of course, the items that we need most at this time are dressing and bandages.  Medwish didn't let us down there, either.  They surprised us with a great selection of sterile gauze, medical tape, stretch bandages, hydro colloid dressings, non-adherent dressings... the list goes on and on.  Opening that box was better than Christmas!

Here, little Ping relaxes in a a chair while his deep pressure sores are cleaned and dressed:

Our EB girls are the biggest users of our bandages and dressings.  We like having a good selection of supplies on hand, so we can choose the most suitable size and type according to how their skin heals and breaks down each day.

Thank you, Medwish, for sending these supplies.  We are so grateful!