Getty Owl Foundation

Spring Forward!

From Mark:

Winter fades away, trees fill, flowers bloom, and the air warms. It is time to emerge from hibernation. In our case, hibernation doesn’t mean a long peaceful dormancy; it means LOCKDOWN! All the work needs to be done and care provided, but Getty & Kate are stuck indoors all winter to avoid getting a sick little girl. If Getty catches a cold, we’re looking at a minimum of 10 days of intensive respiratory treatments around the clock, every 2 to 4 hours without fail. It’s better for us to go stir crazy for a few months than to put Getty at risk.

Then the sun comes out, RSV season tapers off, and we spring forward doing the things we couldn’t do before. This was a perfect weekend for it!

Saturday, we invited Battalion Chief Becky of the West Sacramento Fire Department into our home to visit Getty, look at Getty’s setup and array of medical equipment, discuss Spinal Muscular Atrophy protocols, and devise a basic emergency plan for Getty’s care. It was a great visit! They flagged our address for special emergency dispatch, assured us that first responders would FOLLOW OUR LEAD when administering care, and discussed future meetings along the same lines with ALL the city Battalion Chiefs and the ambulance company supervisor. We will also discuss transferring advance knowledge of SMA to the first responders themselves.

Kate couldn’t attend this meeting because she was taking an opportunity to get out of the house for once. To be more precise, she accidentally gouged the side of her wrist with a big knife and had to get stitches. So, it wasn’t exactly respite time for her.

Sunday, we all got out together! The weather was perfect, and we took a nice drive in the countryside to Winters, California, an old agricultural town with a well preserved Main Street and railroad bridge over Putah Creek, once a rail line from Vacaville. We had just enough time for a great lunch at Preserve Public House and a stroll over the old bridge. Getty was delighted at blowing bubbles on the old bridge, soaking in the sun, and looking at the creek below.

Exploring California has long been one of my favorite things to do. Kate has been nice enough to humor me over the years in this area, especially in one trip where we took a bumpy dirt logging road all the way over the Trinity Alps just because I thought it would be fun. Hopefully, Getty will enjoy the fresh air and seeing new places and things … but we’ll stick to paved highways these days.