Inside the Children's Hospital

Meredith, a nurse and mother of two, describes her experience as a new mom and what happened when her five-week-old had a fever. After several tests in the ER, she and her family learned that their new son had meningitis. Meredith talks about what their ER and hospital was like with a newborn. Two years later and after suffering from several sinus infections and sleep apnea, her son underwent a to...

Torie is a young adult with gastroperesis. Torie's journey has been a long one which includes a car accident, receiving total nutrition through an IV, NOT EATING FOOD FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR, and being told her illness was related to anxiety. These things, however, don't even touch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Torie has been through. Eventually with the help of the device and taking con...

When Lyndsey's newborn daughter failed her initial hearing screening, she wasn't too worried—her older son had also failed the first test. But after a second failed newborn hearing screening, Lyndsey was referred to an audiologist, where she learned her daughter had severe hearing loss . What followed was a journey of emotions, decisions, and hope as her family explored treatment options, includin...

Today's episode features two women. First, we will hear from Alexis whose son went through a fairly common surgery, ear tubes, and she will talk about what their experience was like. However, as child life specialists and parents we know thate despite how "common" or "routine" a surgery may be, those words don't begin to cover all the emotions and experiences that come along with these "common" su...

In honor of March and the fact that is Child Life Month, this episode features Shani Thornton from Child Life Mommy .  Shani shares her entrance into the child life field and how she chose to move forward in the field as a community-based child life specialist. Along with being the author of the children's book "It's time for your check up: What to expect when you're going in for a doctor's visit,...

In this first episode of the second season of this podcast, we hear from a self-proclaimed "crunchy granola mom" Nina, whose fourth child was born with what she calls "a funny shaped head."  Nina goes on to describe her son's first few weeks of life and her appointments with her pediatrician and an osteopathic doctor. With little to no help from the osteopathic doctor, she trusted her instincts an...

This episode closes out Season 1 of the Child Life On Call Podcast. This podcast went from a dream to a reality thanks to the help of the all the courageous families who came forward to share their stories about having a child with medical needs. Season 1 covered the spectrum in illnesses, diseases and conditions, and all episodes had a similar theme: children are resilient and teach us more about...

At just six years old, Susan's son began complaining of belly pain along with other alarming symptoms. After a trip to the doctor, they were quickly sent to meet with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist and would eventually learn the news that one of her sons, Preston, had Crohn's disease. Susan shares personal details about their journey, procedures, and treatments that are associated with Preston's e...

Episode 10 features an interview with Roxanne, a mom of three from San Antonio, Texas. Just after entering high school and an outstanding performance in a football game, Roxanne's eldest child, Rueben, began having high fevers and flu-like symptoms. After about a week, his parents found him having a seizure and rushed him to the emergency room. They would soon learn that Rueben was diagnosed with...

Episode 9 features an interview with Liz and Jamie. Shortly after Jamie was born, she developed a heart murmur and began passing out. Her mom, Liz, walks us through what it was like to witness such terrifying scenarios and how she began to become an advocate for her daughter. Despite being told that nothing was actually wrong with Jamie, Liz pushed harder and demanded tests that led them eventuall...

Episode 8 is Part 2 of Mandy and Nolan's story. If you haven't listened to Part 1, head on over to Episode 7 so you have a better understanding and appreciated for Mandy's story. I mentioned that Nolan was scheduled for surgery and I'm sure you're interested in an update… and this is directly from Mandy: The doctors were able to perform a scope of his airway to identify the obstruction that is cau...

Episode 7 features the first part of Mandy's story. Her son, Nolan, was born five weeks early with a host of symptoms which led them to find that he was diagnosed with a condition that only four other people are currently living with. Nolan is the ninth person in the history of medical science that has been diagnosed with Mandibuloacral Dysplasia Type B (Mad B) . In part one of Mandy's story, she...

Episode 6 features Tricia, a mama who lives in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.  Tricia bring a unique perspective and understanding of child development in her experience based on the fact that she has her masters in early childhood development and education, is currently an adjunct faculty member at Depaul University and is also a doula. In this episode, you'll hear Tricia talk about the fight...

Karen had a typical pregnancy up until the last few scary days when she was unable to feel her daughter move. After following her mother instinct, Karen went to the hospital and quickly learned she would need an emergent c-section. As emergencies go, everything was unexpected. In this episode, Karen walks us through what her daughter's birth and subsequent NICU stay was like. She talks about the u...

After arriving at her 20 week ultrasound, Abigail, her husband and mother were anxiously awaiting to hear the news of their first child's gender. However, the appointment took a turn when they learned that their son would be born with Spina Bifida. Abigail talks to us about that experience and their journey since that life changing moment. They'd come to learn that their son also had hearing loss...

In this episode you will hear Kim talk about her experience in finding out that her son had Microtia Atresia, the interesting link to their family history and how that has affected her journey, and the tough decision about how and when to move forward with surgery. Microtia is a congenital deformity where the external ear is underdeveloped, and Atresia  is the absence or closure of the external au...

Michelle's story is one that took place over 15 years ago, and this is the first time she has spoken about it publicly. At the age of two, Brynn started developing inexplicable fevers which concerned her mother, an Emergency Room nurse. After trusting her gut that "something was wrong," Michelle brought her daughter in the middle of the night to the ER and shortly after was diagnosed with meningoe...

After a long pregnancy on hospitalized bedrest, Kelli describes the birth and first year of her twin girls, one of which was born with two genetic conditions, Caudal Regression Syndrome and Goldenhar Syndrome. The journey to diagnose these conditions was a long one, and Kelli talks about what that process was like, and what is like to have a child with these two syndromes. Kelli recommends a sever...

This is the first promotional episode for the Child Life On Call Podcast. If you would like to share your story, email us at childlifeoncall@gmail.com,  visit our website at www.childlifepodcast.com,  or find us on Instagram @childlifeoncall.   The first official podcast episode will launch in June 2017. Subscribe to be updated on our most recent episodes.