{"id":3928,"date":"2009-11-19T23:44:56","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T04:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2017-05-11T02:02:27","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T06:02:27","slug":"patient-pillowcases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/19\/patient-pillowcases\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient Pillowcases"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Everyone worries a little–or a lot– when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. Often, flowers are sent to express love and concern, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that. Instead of sending a floral arrangement, I sew.<\/p>\n

Embroidering a personalized, pima cotton pillowcase does a lot for the patient and offers me a modicum of peace of mind.<\/p>\n

What can it do for the patient aside from the cool comfort of that\u00c2\u00a0 silky fabric against the face? It draws attention.<\/p>\n

When my mother checked into the hospital for hip replacement surgery on Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day, I immediately slipped this\u00c2\u00a0pima cotton valentine\u00c2\u00a0onto her pillow. The nurses all noticed it, remembered her name, and chatted with her about it. Busy as these angels of mercy are, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always have time to get to know their patients beyond their medical needs.\u00c2\u00a0 But the pillowcase was unique enough to pique their interest.<\/p>\n

My mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nurses\u00c2\u00a0learned that this patient \u00c2\u00a0had a daughter who sewed and made the pillowcase, a son she adored, and that Dollie herself sewed and did machine embroidery. Conversations had a starting point, to my mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advantage.<\/p>\n

The \u00c2\u00a0pillowcase is made of English pima cotton broadcloth from Spechler-Vogel and trimmed with tatted beading and edging.\u00c2\u00a0 The machine embroidered hearts are from the Adorations 2, Hearts Desire<\/em> collection, Zundt Designs www.zundtdesign.com<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 The text was done with PE-Design.<\/p>\n

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A second, white pima\u00c2\u00a0pillowcase, Blue Ribbon Patient, was made\u00c2\u00a0 for the\u00c2\u00a0second day.\u00c2\u00a0One was laundered daily, so Mom had a fresh one each morning.<\/p>\n

The ribbons and floral spray are in the Heirloom Daisies 2<\/em> collection from Hatched in Africa www.hatchedinafrica.com<\/a><\/p>\n

My mother’s \u00c2\u00a0caregivers also brought into her room\u00c2\u00a0nurses who were assigned to other patients, just to show them the pillowcases. To my layman, patient-advocate\u00c2\u00a0way of thinking, the more times a nurse lays eyes on the patient, the better off that patient will be. My mother had significantly more visits than did others with plain,\u00c2\u00a0 standard hospital- issue pillow covers.<\/p>\n

What did making the pillowcase do for me? Knowing her name was boldly embroidered beside her resting head assured me that she would more likely get the correct medication and treatment. Even at night, the nurse could see her name in large, bold letters.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it would reduce the remote, but possible, scenario whereby the surgeon might replace patient Dottie’s good hip instead of Dollie’s bad one and replace Dollie’s good knee instead of Dottie’s bad one. Stranger things have happened.<\/p>\n

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My very competent Aunt Rheeta liked this idea and made this pillowcase for Beth, a dear friend and ailing\u00c2\u00a0member of her church.\u00c2\u00a0 More nursing staff visits ensued and the\u00c2\u00a0 Beth felt both the silky pima cotton fabric and the love that was stitched into it.<\/p>\n

Have you made something special for a patient or ailing loved one?\u00c2\u00a0 Please tell me about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone worries a little–or a lot– when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. Often, flowers are sent to express love and concern, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that. Instead of sending a floral arrangement, I sew. Embroidering a personalized, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,19,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3928"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36924,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928\/revisions\/36924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}