Selected Podcast
Inpatient Pediatric Rehabilitation: Callie's Story
Jodi Gaulker talks about her daughter Callie's treatment at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital Pediatric Unit in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Featured Speaker:
Jodi Gauker
Jodi Gauker is the Mother of pediatric patient Callie Gauker. Transcription:
Inpatient Pediatric Rehabilitation: Callie's Story
Jodi Gauker was due February 1st with her daughter Callie, which as a farm family, we thought was great because there's not a whole lot going on in February, except that I ended up having really high blood pressure and went for a checkup. In that checkup. Doctors told her she had preeclampsia and Callie was delivered via emergency C-section on October 27th.
So she was about 14 weeks early. Callie was born so early. She needed to be watched, but the hospital near their farm in Southeastern Fleetwood, Pennsylvania didn't have the resources they needed for their situation. Callie needed a tracheotomy and her parents needed to be trained to take care of that and use her ventilator.
The Gaukers chose to travel nearly an hour away to the good shepherd rehabilitation hospital pediatric unit in Bethlehem for Callie's inpatient rehab care. So we ended up being a good shepherd for about two months. She was transferred there when she was about five months old and she came home when she was seven months old.
So for that, for those two months Lee and I went just about every day to see her. There's a few days we missed because of weather. Thank you, Pennsylvania winters, but she was transferred there and we learned about her ventilator and this is all being taught by the nurses and respiratory therapists.
And they spent so much time with us to make sure that we felt comfortable on how to know what her vent settings are and how to know when she's in distress and how to change her trach to which we had to do at home every week. Callie is six now. And she's a pretty regular kid with no trake and no feeding tubes.
We did find out that either whenever she was in the hospital and they were taking the breathing tube in and out to see if she could breathe by herself or because of her trach tube, she has a paralyzed left vocal cord. So her voice is really raspy. So she'll be a great jazz singer. One day if the spirit moves her in that direction.
Callie is now feeding calves and has to feed our dog Darla and is getting chores. But she's able to do all that now because she was able to grow up into a big kid because we got training. We needed to know how to best help her grow up to be a normal kid. Jodi says she is so thankful for her village and the team who trained her a good shepherd to be the best mother and caretaker for Callie when she really needed it.
I always joke that you have to have a license to drive a car and you have to have a license to have a dog, but being that you don't have to have a license to have a child. And there's no, there's no book that can prepare you for what is to come whenever you become a parent. Good shepherd is a destination for recovery.
Call 1-888-44 rehab or visit good shepherd rehab.org.
Inpatient Pediatric Rehabilitation: Callie's Story
Jodi Gauker was due February 1st with her daughter Callie, which as a farm family, we thought was great because there's not a whole lot going on in February, except that I ended up having really high blood pressure and went for a checkup. In that checkup. Doctors told her she had preeclampsia and Callie was delivered via emergency C-section on October 27th.
So she was about 14 weeks early. Callie was born so early. She needed to be watched, but the hospital near their farm in Southeastern Fleetwood, Pennsylvania didn't have the resources they needed for their situation. Callie needed a tracheotomy and her parents needed to be trained to take care of that and use her ventilator.
The Gaukers chose to travel nearly an hour away to the good shepherd rehabilitation hospital pediatric unit in Bethlehem for Callie's inpatient rehab care. So we ended up being a good shepherd for about two months. She was transferred there when she was about five months old and she came home when she was seven months old.
So for that, for those two months Lee and I went just about every day to see her. There's a few days we missed because of weather. Thank you, Pennsylvania winters, but she was transferred there and we learned about her ventilator and this is all being taught by the nurses and respiratory therapists.
And they spent so much time with us to make sure that we felt comfortable on how to know what her vent settings are and how to know when she's in distress and how to change her trach to which we had to do at home every week. Callie is six now. And she's a pretty regular kid with no trake and no feeding tubes.
We did find out that either whenever she was in the hospital and they were taking the breathing tube in and out to see if she could breathe by herself or because of her trach tube, she has a paralyzed left vocal cord. So her voice is really raspy. So she'll be a great jazz singer. One day if the spirit moves her in that direction.
Callie is now feeding calves and has to feed our dog Darla and is getting chores. But she's able to do all that now because she was able to grow up into a big kid because we got training. We needed to know how to best help her grow up to be a normal kid. Jodi says she is so thankful for her village and the team who trained her a good shepherd to be the best mother and caretaker for Callie when she really needed it.
I always joke that you have to have a license to drive a car and you have to have a license to have a dog, but being that you don't have to have a license to have a child. And there's no, there's no book that can prepare you for what is to come whenever you become a parent. Good shepherd is a destination for recovery.
Call 1-888-44 rehab or visit good shepherd rehab.org.