April Meeting Reminder

Reminder For The April Meeting

Just a quick reminder that the April meeting will be held on the 20th, from 12:45 pm til 3:00 pm in the Casey Room at Swedish Hospital's Cherry Hill Campus (17th & Jefferson).  All that are interested in hydrocephalus are welcome to attend.

Also, wanted to send belated condolences to Shawnee and her family, at loss of her mother.

Just saw the interview on Bill Moyers & Company (PBS) with Sherman Alexie.  Very interesting and, as always, informative.  

HAPPY EASTER!

 

 

Hard to believe the year's first quarter is done!  This March has been a good one, for me.  Brain Awareness was a success and we are planning for 2014.  Lots of brainstorming going on about new ways to generate awareness, donations and getting the word out about living with the various aspects of hydro in daily life.  Easter is also one of those times I find myself being thankful for everything that has come my way and to refocus on my goals for the future.

I'm really hoping that some of my long term goals for the Brain Awareness exhibit will happen in 2014.  I really want to build on what we've created over the last 15 yrs or so. 

Spring has definitely sprung!  The tulips and daffs are coming on strong.  Just waiting for the roses and lilacs to come into their own.  Just getting used to not wearing my coat everywhere!

Looking forward to April 20th, the next meeting for the group.  As always, looking forward to seeing familiar and new faces.  Always hoping to see those we haven't seen in awhile as well.  They were missed at last month's Brain Awareness event.

 

I've been reading a lot of articles about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other causes of hydro, posted/published by the CDC via the Seattle Public Library's database.  Very interesting and informative.  Our city and state leaders, as well as educators and coaches need to read these articles and take their information to heart.

 

Just a quick note:  It was great to see that Kathi Goertzen was memorialized by WSU's Edward R. Murrow School of Journalism by having naming a building after her.  Kathi was a great person and a longtime Seattle journalist who battled non-cancerous tumors for over a decade before losing that battle in 2012.  She is definitely missed.  But with her foundation and WSU's tribute to her, she will always be remembered.

 

 

 

Hope to see everyone on the 20th!

March 2013 Meeting

MARCH 2013 MEETING



We reviewed the 2013 UW Brain Awareness Open House event and all agreed that it was one of our most successful to date.  Already planning for 2014, which will be our 16th year as an exhibitor at the event.  Hard to believe how fast the time has gone.

Wanted to thank Dr. Eric Chudler for organizing the event and for providing the pictures posted in the last blog post.  I am looking forward to getting more from someone else.  Also wanted to thank Bobbe & Dean Andersen for coming up for the event from Olympia.  It is always great having them being a part of the meeting and events.

Also wanted to thank Dave, from Medtronic, for coming again.  It is always nice having Medtronic at our table, showing the kids, parents and teachers how a shunt works and how they've evolved.  This year he also brought a video that was popular with the kids.

Getting to this month's meeting was a real challenge, with all the detours due to road work and the growing chaos from sporting event fans in Pioneer Square.  I do want to appologize, again, for being late to the meeting.  All I can say is that getting TO the meeting was a piece of cake compared to getting home!

We did speak with a teacher or two who asked if we do speaking engagements at schools.  We would LOVE to do them, but we rarely get asked.  The more people who know about hydrocephalus the better, especially prevention.

BRAIN AWARENESS OPEN HOUSE--2013

 Tuesday, March 5th was the 2013 Brain Awareness Open House, sponsored by the University of Washington.  This was our 15th year as an exhibitor at this event and we got to meet with 600-700 students from Western Washington from grade school to high school.  As always, it was great meeting the kids, parents and teachers that came.

Kim Andersen, Frank Cook, Diana Pozzi and Kim's mother, Bobbie Andersen manned our booth.  We were fortunate to have Medtronic's shunt rep Dave Schinkel also attend.  He brought some great visual aids and a dvd of a shunt surgery that the kids got to watch.

It is always great to have the opportunity to answer questions and address myths and misunderstandings about hydrocephalus.  It is also nice to be able to let people see that we live full, productive lives with the condition of hydrocephalus.

We're already in the process of making plans for the 2014 event!

It was interesting to hear a teacher ask if we go to schools and make presentations, which we would love to do!  We have members who could make a presentation to students and classes, particularly in the Puget Sound area.  Our group has members throughout Puget Sound--from Olympia to Port Angeles.

As always, we encourage those interested in hydrocephalus to attend one of our monthly meetings.  We meet on the third Saturday of each month, in the Casey Room, from 12:45 pm to 3:00 pm.  The March meeting will be on March 16th.

Student & Bobbe Andersen

Frank Cook

Bobbe, Dave (Medtronic Rep), Kim, Frank & Diana

Brain Awareness Exhibit

BRAIN AWARENESS OPEN HOUSE--SO NEAR!

The 2013 Brain Awareness (BAW) Open House is coming up on Tuesday, the 5th of March!  Can't believe it is coming up so soon.

I picked up some of the giveaway items, so kindly donated by KING5 Television, for our exhibit.  One of our topics this year is about how weather (specifically the barometric pressure) impacts those of us with shunts.  It ties is with the weather dvd that KING5 donated.  Their donations are always welcome additions to our table(s) at the event.

We still have some giveaway items from last year and are expecting some items from other sources in the coming days.  We'll have lots of 'stuff', which is always great.

We will be seeing several hundred kids from Washington state schools--everything from private and home schooled kids to public school students.  In addition, we will be seeing lots of parents and teachers.

I'm already brainstorming for next year's exhibit.  Hard to believe that we've been part of BAW for over 12 years.  How time flies!  Lots of surprises, hopefully. 

I'm hoping to be able to post pictures from this year's event on the blog shortly after returning from the event.

Yesterday I found a number of periodical articles on hydro that were published in February, 2013.  I just skimmed them, since I was at the library and running out of time on the library computer.  I'd love to include some of the articles and information in our BAW exhibit.

FEBRUARY MEETING

 This month's meeting was our last before March 5th's Brain Awareness Open House Event.  We are still getting 'stuff' together for the exhibit, including searching for a tv/dvd combo unit (small) so we can show a couple of dvds.

I'm still hoping to get some donated items from KING5, our local NBC affiliate.  They have donated things, like reusable bags, in the past.  The reusable bags were a big hit with the kids at the event.

We are looking forward to having Medtronic being a part of the exhibit again this year too.  Another aspect of our exhibit that has gone over well with the kids, as well as parents and teachers.

As always, I'm hoping for more than we get for each year's exhibit.  Some day I would love to have some neuro researchers with a focus on hydrocephalus at our booth.  I'd also like to have a 'wall' of brain scans to show kids how every one is unique.  While I found some online, I'm not sure how good the quality of them would be after being reproduced.

I'm also hoping to get a new charger for my camera and be able to post pictures from BAW.

At the February meeting we had a new person join us, which was great.  We got to hear his story and he got to hear our's.  Hope to see him at future meetings!

I was sorry to hear that Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon, will be retiring later this year.  He is one of the country's premiere pediatric neurosurgeons.  He spoke at last week's Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC.  He was also on ABC's This Week.

Looking forward to the March meeting where we will be discussing BAW.

January Meeting Cancelled

Unfortunately, we are having to cancel the January meeting due to illness.  Several of us have this 'bug' going around and don't want to infect others.  We WILL have the February meeting, as scheduled.

Hope to see everyone in February!