RT Student Blog

*Let me preface this post by saying that I hate my camera and plan to replace it soon* You'll see by the pictures

Tonight I went to the local kickoff event for the Great Strides walk. I have really gotten caught up with this great organization and a lot of the bloggers dealing with CF, but this is the first time I actually met someone living with the disease. I met The House family and Christian who has CF. They started the Great Strides walk in Fayetteville last year, Go check out their Caring Bridge site to see how Christian is doing.

I look forward to get to know all of these brave people in this area as the walk gets closer. Don't forget to check out my team page to see how you can help.

In school when we went over airway clearance we learned about the vest. I didn't think much about it until I started talking to all of you, my new friends, living with Cystic Fibrosis. Now I know that the vest has cut mortality rates in half, I also know that it costs over $15,000. Now I have some questions. Do you have one? Is it easy to get and get covered by insurance, medicaid, or whatever you use? Do you know of kids with cf in families that cannot afford one? Is the company that makes it receptive to this and willing to help you get one, even if you can't afford it? I don't mean to pry but I have plans and ideas and the answers to these questions will help me. Please leave a comment or if you'd rather it remain private please email me at marcus.williford(at)gmail(dot)com. Thank you.

Oh, before I go I wanted to tell you guys about a new blog I found. Her name is Salty (I'm sure thats not her real name) and she seems to be living with CF and diabetes. Her blog is Salty and Sweet. She's a hottie too(sorry,I just had to throw that in there. I am a guy after all). Here is what she says in the "about me" section

"Other Cystic Fibrosis warriors must be out there. I believe we must band together, share with each other, and fight these horrendous diseases together. Knowledge is power. The more we know the stronger, and healthier, we each will be.

I have dedicated many hours of my life reaching out to help my doctors find a cure and new treatments for Cystic Fibrosis. Now I want reach out and connect with others who have CF, those who have CFRD, friends, family and anyone else who knows what it is like to live with health issues, and those wonderful people who support them."

Let's get to know her too.

I was at clinicals this weekend and someone was selling raffle tickets for their Relay for Life team. That got me thinking. I should have thought of it before because wedo raffles all the time at school. I want to raffle something for my Great Strides team. I set a personal goal of 500 bucks and am at 180 now. I haven't donated any personally yet but I will. I figured I would donatelast when I got closer to the goal. That leaves me at something like 380 left to raise.

I don't what to raffle. I thought about a blu-ray player. Those are about 200 bucks so I would need to sell about 300-400 tickets to make a substantial donation.Thats a lot of selling and I just don'tknow if I am up th it. The lady for Relay for Life was raffling a gas card. Those are always good. I could get a 50 dollar one. Then I would only need to sell 100-200 tickets to make a good donation.

What do you think. I know I have a lot of awesome readers who have a lot more experience raising money for Great Strides than I do. Please chime in with comments on what to raffle. Thanks.

Well, you guys know that I am a Respiratory Therapy student who has recently developed a passion for doing my part to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis. Since I've started this blog I've met other RT students throughout the country. My buddy the Trauma Junkie wrote me today and said that he decided to sign up for his local Great Strides walk in Texas.

"Hey, just found out there is a Great Strides walk here in April. Will be going..inspired by your efforts."

I am so excited to have inspired someone to get involved with a cause that has come to mean so much to me. Go visit his blog, My RT Life, and tell him how proud you are too.

Well, I made it through day 2 of 4 in the NICU. I go back next Wednesday and Thursday. Today we had more twins and I even got to set up a baby on a Nasal CPAP. It actually looked a lot like this.

I then got home to find this nice comment "I'm a CF Mom and I got your blog from some of my CF friends out in blog land. I think it's great that you are getting to know new families and that you are getting the word out about CF. Good luck in school. If you have time stop by and check out our family. Melissa is 19 months old and has CF. She is doing really well. Her lungs are clear at this time. She never had to spend any extra time in the hostpial when she was born. She is only on enzymes and vitimens at this time."

Of course I had to go check out The Liberto Blog. I added them to blogs I follow but if you haven't met them, you definitely need to go meet Melissa. She's one of the cutest little girls I've ever met. I look forward to getting to know them and I'm sure you will too.

Last week was an amazing week here at the blog. I had a snow day and a lot of free time to meet people. I met some awesome people who are dealing with lung diseases. Unfortunately I am back in school, clinicals full time and don't have the time to blog like I did last week. I will keep an eye on the blogs I have discovered and keep you updated on my Great Strides progress (55 bucks so far..woohoo!!!). Go visit my friends and have fun getting to know them

Thursday I had a crazy day at clinicals. I didn't get to eat breakfast or lunch. I did get to see a couple of procedures that I had never seem before. I saw a transesophageal echo which was neat. You could actually see the heart. I also saw a bronchoalveolar lavage done without a bronchoscope. It was done to clean out the lungs of a patient who had aspirated grits. I'm getting off the subject though.

When I got home I had an email from Carolyn, the mom blogger of A Thousand Pictures. "
Thanks for all you are doing for cf!!". Naturally I went to check out her blog. She is the mom of 3 who lives in Austin, Texas (I'm jealous) and is going to nursing school. Her 2 oldest boys, Kyler and Branson, have CF but from the pictures on the blog, it doesn't slow them down. I saw pictures of them doing all kinds of stuff like roller skating. I posted this one because they are at a UT baseball game. I'm definitely jealous because I love sports and would love to go to a UT game myself.

Go on over to A Thousand Pictures and check out her blog. Don't forget that you can do your part to help find a cure for CF by donating to the Great Strides walk.

I just looked at my schedule yesterday and just discovered I will not be able to do the Great Strides walk this year. We have a 4 day class to prepare us for the certification exams upon graduation. I will be in class when the local Great Strides walk is going on. The kicker is that the class is at the same school the walk is being held. Thats ok though. It's not gonna stop my fundraising and efforts to reach the goal I have set. That is the most important thing anyway, getting money to the CF Foundation for research.

Once again I have gotten a comment from another mom dealing with CF. This time I heard from Angela in Kansas who has a 9 month old named Phoenix (coolest name ever). I'm gonna warn you though, when you click on the link you'll immediately fall in love with the cutest little boy you've ever seen. The blog is called Phoenix's Fight and it's about their fight with CF.
Their blog is an awesome place with lots of videos and even Phoenix's Quilt of Love (go see what that is)

"Phoenix was born April 30, 2008 in
Topeka, KS at Stormontvail Hospital. Two days later he had surgery for a mecinium ileus at Children's Mercy Hospital in
Kansas City, Mo. The surgeons told us it was greater that 95% Phoenix had
Cystic Fibrosis. Two weeks later his tests came back positive for CF. Phoenix is a double carrier of DF508. (For more information on CF please visit http://www.cff.org/)
Together with family and friends Phoenix has started the fight of his life.
This is his story!"

I know you want to help with this horrible disease. Go here to see how you can help and win a nice camera.
Also, go check out my Great Strides page and donate a little.

The other day I told you about how my new friend Julie (Seamus's mom from Mugga Bugga) had given me a lovely blog award. I am to send it to my new blog friends, and they are to pass it along to their new blog friends. It should go to those who step outside their comfort zone, and make new bloggy friends. I'm pretty sure most of my new friends have gotten it already but I will pass it on.

Katey from My CF Journey with God In an email she told me " I have a huge passion for CF and doing everything I can for other CF patients and families!". She also has CF and received a LIVING DONOR Double lung transplant from her mom and a family friend. She was given a second chance at life and is doing great things to help others. I really am in awe.

I think everyone that I have met and been writing about this last week. You guys deal with this horrible disease on a daily basis. I will see this from the perspective of a caregiver in the hospital, but you are the heroes.

The other day i was searching the net and found a blog about a family in Illinois. They have a brave little girl named Ashley who has Cystic Fibrosis. I don't know how much you know about CF but it is a horrible disease in the COPD group of diseases. As a soon to be Respiratory Therapist, this disease is something I am becoming familiar with. Anyway, The Schellenbergs blog got me to thinking. First, go check out the blog, then come on back. I'll wait...

...Ok, you're back. I'll move on.

As part of my last semester I have to do some kind of community project. From reading their blog and others devoted to people living with CF, I decided to start a team to do the CF walk. The closest one to me is in Fayetteville on April 25th. I signed up for a team and sent out some invitations to prospective team members. I even set lofty fund raising goals of $1,500 for the team and $500 for myself. Now we can get down to business.

You know I'm gonna hit you up. If you are in the central NC area and would like to participate and join my team, then that's great. I doubt there are too many of you because I don't think I have a great amount of local readers. You can donate though. Any donation is greatly appreciated. Even a buck. At the bottom I'll place a link to my page where you can donate with a credit card. If you would prefer donating with Paypal then just leave me a comment or email me and I will help you do that.