What you want is what you get

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What you want is what you get, this was the Mcdonald's slogan in 1994, when I was spending a lot of my time at the IWK in Halifax. In the spring of that year my parents and I were doing our training for peritoneal Dialysis. This was done on an out patient basis, I was not admitted to hospital at this time, there really was no need. Our home while there was the Ronald McDonald house. Sounds awesome huh? Living in Ronald Mcdonald's house, this absolutely has to be the most kick ass Mcdonalds in all the universe, it must have Mcdonalds room service, and your food is cooked none other than by the man himself, Grimace! Not so, there is no Mcdonalds in Ronald McDonald House.


Ronald McDonald house is a place for the parents of children in the IWK to stay that is less expensive than a hotel or even a motel. It has a kitchen, and laundry facilities. It's not too fancy but it certainly fits it's residents needs. It's walking distance from the IWK, along with Spring Garden road where there is local shopping, restaurants and entertainment. It's in a pretty good residential area that if you don't have a vehicle you can get to pretty much anything you'd want. It's along a bus route and of course there are also taxis. If you do have a vehicle there is limited parking in the back. It became a home away from home for a good part of my and my parents life in 1994. In the latter part of the year after my transplant I was obviously admitted into hospital so my mother was spending her evenings at Ronald McDondald house, while I was at the hospital. 


The normal stay length after a transplant at that time at the IWK was 3 months in hospital, because of other complications I ended up being there for 4 months. Because of the extra month I spent there in 1994 we spent Christmas at Ronald McDonald house, I'll leave that story for another time though.


Owen