Breathing Hope!

My thanksgiving was an eventful one as always, surrounded by the people that are most important to me.  I started the day off with some of my best friends at the Pennridge/Quakertown football game which is a traditional thanksgiving day football game between 2 rival high schools that has been played for the last 80 some years. Being a Pennridge alum of course I was sitting on the green and whites side cheering the team on with the marching band that I was a part of during high school. It was great to see some of my friends that are still in high school and part of the marching band as well as a Pennridge win! After the game I went to my families traditional thanksgiving dinner at my grandmothers. It was fantastic as always with food coming out of every corner of my grandmothers house. After we were finished eating and catching up with family it was time to attend the other side of the families thanksgiving where we also caught up with family and shared in some ...

  I can't believe yet another week has pasted, the weeks seem to moving so quickly! Once again my week has been filled with a little bit of everything! Wednesday was crazy as always, but it's my favorite day of the week! This Wednesday was even more hectic then normal. I had my classes, gave a tour of campus to prospective students parents and then left to go to my preschool classroom for my field experience. This week the kids were especially energetic! They seemed to be jumping off the walls all day long, but as always they were warm and loving. The preschoolers I work with are so adorable, rather intelligent, and are full of life. They help me to stay grounded and love the simple things in my life. Their innocents and warm love for everyone puts a smile on my face. This week we were learning about thanksgiving and talking about what we are thankful for in our lives. Some of the answers that came out of 4 year olds mouths were incredible! They are who the rest of us sho...

  Once again, I have failed to write for almost a week, I keep promising to get better, I'm not going to promise that today but I am going to challenge myself to write alittle more often. This week has been a crazy week let me tell you!! But we are coming up on Thanksgiving which is always a welcome break and a time to reflect. Well more on that later time to get to a few facts about Alpha-1, I believe I owe you 6 for my 6 day absence of writing! So here it goes... Post for November 8,2012 Below is a video that the Alpha-1 Association posted on their facebook page. I found it rather interesting to watch, its somewhat humorous as well. I find peoples responses to the awareness of alpha-1 to be similar to the ones I receive every time I bring it up to some one knew. Just finishhing up my first semester of College I have faced this odd moment when you mention that your family is affected by Alpha-1 and you get the "you have 5 heads" look for the next 30 seconds until...

Since I haven't written for 5 days I have 5 things I need to share about Alpha-1 so here it goes.... Here are some quick facts... 1.) Alpha-1 is a genetically passed disease from parent to child that is passed through generations. 2.) Alpha-1 Affects males and females equally as well as race. 3.) Alpha-1 Affects 1 out of every 2,500 people in the U.S. which adds to approximately 100,000 people. 4.) Approximately 20 million people carry the genes that can cause Alpha-1, normally they do not show side effects but can easily pass it on to their children 5.) 10-15% of Liver Transplants are because of Alpha related genetic abnormalities. These facts always interest me, many people don't know what alpha-1 is and many are misdiagnosed, these numbers do not count those misdiagnosed and they are already large, imagine if they did. It is our job as advocates for this just under 50 year old disease, to become known, to everyone, so the suffering can stop and a cure can be foun...

Can you tell someone has Alpha by just looking at them??? The answer is no! For a few years before my dad went on supplemental oxygen no one could tell that he was affected by Alpha-1. Many of the people around us could not understand why my family was so concerned and what was really going on. Most thought it was a simple fix little did they know it is not as simple as it sounds. I remember when my father first began using supplemental oxygen, the first time my friends saw it was at my 16th birthday party. I remember some of them coming up to me and saying, "what happened to your dad is he OK?" It was like everything I had been talking about for the last two years and how concerned I was finally hit them, no things were not okay, my life was more complicated then it once had been but it was time to make another adjustment and find a new 'normal'. People on the outside of the situation had no idea what was going on until there were visible signs, its amazing how u...

It’s November!! What does that mean?!? It is once again Alpha-1 Awareness month!! As many of you know I started this very blog because of Alpha-1. My family is affected by this genetic condition in our everyday activities. Most people ask what is alpha-1 because they have never heard of it before,   I hadn’t either until I found out that my dad suffered from the condition, so to answer your questions here is the answer! What is Alpha 1? Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (Alpha-1) is a genetic condition that is passed on by parents to their children through their genes and can cause serious liver disease in children and liver and/or lung disease in adults. Alpha-1 antitrypsin is a protein that is produced mostly in the liver. Its primary function is to protect the lungs from neutrophil elastase. Neutrophil elastase is an enzyme that normally serves a useful purpose in lung tissue-it digests damaged or aging cells and bacteria to promote healing. However, if left unchecked, i...