Helping Hand for Mackenzie

Mackenzie's Story:  Most of you know my day to day work life of caring for customers, looking for ways to be more efficient and provide better value to UZ and my customers at the same time. What some of you may not know, is that my real job starts at before and after I sit at my computer each day. My husband has MS. It's something we found out after we got together. Every day is different and over the past year he's had a total of 30-40 normal days. What does normal mean? It means walking without pain, energy through out the entire day, remember simple tasks and feeling like the person he was before he found out. What I choose to do is stay on top of all three meals, the house hold chores, and other "adulting" responsibilities.

If that wasn't enough, my daughter Chloe was diagnosed with kidney reflux at 6 months. What we didn't know until most recently is that its not just kidney reflux. It's actually that her kidneys are under pressure because her spine did not form as it should have. Without getting into too much detail, Chloe will have to go under spinal surgery to relieve the pressure and we hope this will help her keep the level of function she currently has. There are a lot of unknowns and more surgeries a head.

I ofter hear, " I don't know how you do it". Ha, I don't know either some days. I do know that I find strength in having a role outside of being a mom, wife and caregiver. That's here at UZ. I get to work with the best and the brightest.I am grateful for that and I am above and beyond grateful for the support I get from the UZ family.