The attitude of gratitude

My friend donna taught me that people don't necessarily have to be nice to you when taking care of you medically.  Because of this she always went out of her way to be kind to all of her team( housekeeping, nutrition, techs,nurses, doctors, and friends and family).  At the onset of her illness I did not understand her approach.  If I'm completely honest, I have to admit I didn't fully understand it until I had my own team. Kind of like parenting  (you understand your parent better when you parent a mini you).  Suffice it to say, cancer has taught me why she said thank you for everything , injections and blood draws included.  My journey has been a twisted turbulent climb, but my team has been with me and made it not just bearable but at times fun.  So am I grateful for cancer?  Heck no, I'm not that enlightened yet.  But I am grateful for what it has shown me about me and for my team.  Because I have always loved holidays and gifting, I try to do something every quarter for my team. For valentines day I made lollipop bouquets for my team.  For spring, which is officially here dispite mother natures moodiness, I made spring baskets with the little plastic eggs ( filled with gum balls and mini candy bars)  And I made a jelly bean shaker out of a salt shaker for my injection nurse ( small glass salt shaker with a pour out top and I hot glued a pink ribon onto the face of the jar) and filled with jelly beans. Total cost for encouraging my team $8.00 or one wingstop lunch which I don't need anyway (paleo diet).  Return on my investment: smiles, an encouraged team, joyful health care. So if you see doctors,nurses, machines oh my!  Feel free to borrow my ideas if you like.



Do you think it's too much to encourage them?

Do you you have any cool inexpensive encouragement ideas I can borrow?