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| Greetings!
Good morning! How's your week? Plenty of time left to buy presents. Just a little bit of work remaining. Hope and happiness so thick in the air you can see it. Christmas music sounding really good. Have you heard Buble's Cold December Night?
We've had new interest from El Paso, Sacramento, and Toledo. Fun stuff, we're very fortunate.
This week we have just a couple things - a video that we had to share ("That's two in a month. If I wanted movies I would've signed up for Blockbuster!") and just a minor public alert.
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23 and 1/2 Hours
This brilliant video speaks for itself, but real quickly:
1. To those who forwarded it, our office absolutely loves it, thank you.
2. It was done by Dr. Mike Evans, a family doctor in Toronto
3. You might not have time now (it's nine minutes long), but please consider watching this weekend - it's like nothing we've ever seen.
When you are ready, please click here.
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No Cause for Alarm
...but just in case
Have you seen those therapy dogs they bring into the hospital to elevate people's spirits? What a great idea. Patients (and doctors) love them!
So, at WWAD Headquarters we were thinking, there are so many therapy dogs, wouldn't other animals create the same feelings of happiness and self-worth and add a little variety? Of course they would.
This past month we were honored to present WWAD at a Grand Rounds in Maine. I thought, why don't we bring Jimmy, a flying squirrel that hangs around our office. He's so friendly with all the kids that come by. I'll put him in his Batman costume and we'll take him around to see some patients. Good intentions, easy enough, right? ("You like commas, don't you?")
Jimmy was absolutely perfect on the flight to Portland.
He stayed in the duffel under the seat, watched A Chipmunk Christmas on my iPad (like being at a drive-in for Jimmy), and a couple bags of those Southwest dry-roasted peanuts also helped keep him entertained. As an aside, my neighbor was dying to know why I was opening peanut bags and tossing them into my duffel. I told her it kept my clothes fresh. About 45 minutes in, she asked why I was holding up the bag and talking to my clothes.
I didn't answer.
Anyway, I think the Grand Rounds lecture ended up going pretty well, lots of great questions. Afterwards, I changed into my Robin costume and took Jimmy around to see some chronically ill patients at ------- Hospital.
*I'm not sharing the name of the specific hospital in an effort to thwart widespread panic at this particular institution. At one point, on my own personal USO tour, an RN was laughing at me, asking me about my tights or something. I turned around to answer, took my eyes off Jimmy for a second, and he was gone.
I spent the next two hours and fifteen minutes looking at hospital room ceilings (where he hangd out when we're playing Batman and Robin).
No luck.
My flight back to Columbus was at 7:35 that night and I had no choice, I had to leave Jimmy in his new home, ------- Hospital.
I made a strategic decision not to share with hospital administration for (a) concern of initiating public fear and (b) I was worried they would be mad at me. I just left him.
Truth be told, there might be some reason to be concerned.
You see, Jimmy's favorite toys at the office are long, ribbed plastic tubes. Our receptionist's husband, Brad, works for a medical supply company and brings these to Jimmy as gifts. Jimmy loves to run through them, use them to make funny echo sounds, but most of all, he loves to chew, chew, chew right through them. If he's nervous (e.g. there are people he doesn't recognize in the office) he'll eat through 7 or 8 a day.
I'm just a little nervous, because I watched Jimmy's eyes light up when we were in their Intensive Care Unit. He saw that respiratory tubing that connects the ICU patients to their ventilator and he was like a kid in a candy shop.
So, if you happen to be an ICU patient, or an RN, at a hospital in Maine; you might want to occasionally check the ceiling for a flying squirrel in a Batman costume (complete with mask). If you are intubated and unable to speak, please hit the RN button, point at Jimmy and flap your arms.
THIS IS IMPORTANT. If Jimmy sees that ventilator tubing, and trust me, he can smell it coming from down the hall, he will be on that plastic like white on rice. If Jimmy starts chewing on your ventilator hose, I'm concerned this could quickly create worrisome air leaks ("You think?!?!")
In closing, this may be no big deal ("No big deal?!?!"), but if you are currently at a hospital within an hour and a half driving radius of Portland's airport, and you see a flying squirrel in a Batman costume that answers to Jimmy and looks like this: 
Please forward him to the address listed at the bottom of this page. Thank you for your attention to this sensitive matter.
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Thank you for getting your 150 minutes of exercise this week and next. Have a wonderful weekend - you've earned it.
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