We are off to Austin.. keep fingers crossed

We spent a couple of days with family in NOLA.. My mom hasn’t been well, however she looks great and seems to be getting better. Congestive heart failure, kidney and liver failure all take their toll on a person. She is strong, motivated and has lived for over 10 years with the heart failure. She and my dad inspire us to keep going and stay strong.. and tell us that under any circumstance, do not let anyone stop us and never take “NO” for an answer.

Kezia still has back pain. I fear its from her own cancer. Of course, I tend to worry to much. Lochlan still isn’t feeling well. His appetite has been low, upset stomach and just a bit clingy. As a parent of a child who died of cancer, Neuroblastoma, you always worry about your other children; I wonder, does he have early stages and we don’t know it? No, its such a low probability – like almost 0% chance. But its still a fear and most other parents in our support circle and beyond have the same fears. The reality is, the travel and not having his regular diet takes a tole. Plus, we feel the largest factor to him not feeling well is he is cutting a tooth.

In about half an hour we are setting off for Austin. Its about 8 hours.. 10 with Lochlan. This is ok because we want to make sure he gets some exercise and a chance to get out and run around a bit during the trip.

We have a lot of work to do while driving. We are still preparing for this pitch coming up Monday. We are nervous, however not that much. The bottom line is, its our pitch, our company, our product and design – we know it and we got this!

Kezia has done a great job writing the pitch and working with our coaches to refine it to be the most impactful. We will write more tonight or later today..

CareAline’s Trip to Austin for Impact Pediatric Health at SXSW – Day 1.. Finally, the day is over and sleep time is near..

Today has had its ups and downs. It started down. I had to set a limit on how long we were going to work on the camper this morning; For u to find a short in the wiring inside the camper meant that we would need to either remove the fake wood paneling in hopes of finding the wiring.. or pulling the entire harness and replacing it. Neither option worked for us at this time. We needed to get on the road regardless. We started working on it at 8 am.. we stopped at 11’ish am. Making the decision              This was a small blow to us financially. We planned the drive and camping to save money..  I (mike) was so frustrated and really getting down on myself for not testing that wiring a week ago..My father in law Craig and I replaced the wiring harness that goes from trailer to car and it worked fine hooked up to his truck.. so we assumed it would work on mine..

I want to clarify what I mean by camping i this situation.. In the summer we camp for fun.. to hike, sight see, explore, teach our son about nature, campfires, marshmallows and the occasional craft beer.. Sleeping out in nature – we tent camp in the summer. In this instance and for this trip, what I mean by camping is – we drive all day, pull into a campground at night, not even unhook.. we pop up the camper, turn the heater on and go to sleep. Then get up early in the morning, like 5am, crank the camper down, get in the car and hit the road aging.. on average, it would have cost us anywhere from $15 – $30 per night -vs- $100-$140 a night in a hotel.

Although the morning was a drag.. once we got on the road we felt much better. I was getting pretty nervous because we need to go see Mikes family in Louisiana first (its on the way). Mike’s mom has not been feeling well and was just released from the ICU.. She has congestive heart failure.. She is strong and not willing to let things bring her down and keeps moving forward.. We will spend a couple of days with them and then head off to Austin.

When we started raising money on the Indigogo site to help with this trip, it was budgeted for camping.. not hotels.. Although we are stressed out.. we have a mission and we try hard to keep that mission in focus…

Lochlan is ready for bed, which means all lights out.. Good night, thanks for reading and we will have much more on our story tomorrow..

Cheers

http://igg.me/at/CareAlineRoadTrip

Mike & Kezia

Finally on our way to Texas for the Impact Pediatric Health Competition at SXSW

We told Lochlan we were going to texas, he got dressed for it… oops..

Relapsed Neuroblastoma Treatment a step forward for the pediatric cancer world.

Great news and a wonderful and hopeful step forward for Relapse Neuroblastoma. If you like the article, please forward it to others. Thank you.   http://neuroblastoma.ca/blog/relapse/current-and-future-strategies-for-relapsed-neuroblastoma/

After losing a child to cancer, parents strive to help others with PICC lines, Central Lines (CVL’S, Broviac/Hickman), G-Tubes, PEG Tubes and various other feeding tubes and catheters

 

After fighting cancer alongside her daughter, a mom’s innovation improves quality of life for future patients. It was unacceptable to Mike and Kezia that the hospital did hot have a safe and consistent solution to the aftercare of their infant daughter’s PICC Line and Central Line. Kezia, wanting to protect her daughter from any additional discomfort, went home and created a solution.

Kezia and Mike knew they wanted to help other patients and families living with external catheter lines and give the healthcare industry a standardized way to secure and manage Central Lines, PICC lines and G-GJ Tubes.  They started CareAline Products, LLC. “It was important to us to help other people. Our products were designed because we needed to find a safe solution to a problem.” Says Mike. With that the CareAline™ product line was born.

CareAline™ Products are unique, one-of-a kind line management systems for PICC Lines, Central Lines, PEG Lines, G-GJ Tubes and various catheters. They keep lines off of the patients skin, keep lines safe and put away, and allow patients to avoid uncomfortable tape or makeshift devices to hold lines in place when they have lines implanted for any reason.

CareAline Products, LLC started shipping retail orders of its current product line in May of 2013, and wholesale orders came right after. CareAline will soon be part of the line care regime in hospitals, infusion clinics, children’s hospitals and cancer centers thorough out the world. In the past eight months, CareAline has signed four new specialty medical product distributors to distribute their CareAline™ Sleeves for PICC Lines, CareAline™ Wraps for Central Lines and G-GJ Tubes throughout the US, Canada and Australia, and is looking into distributors in the EU, Brazil and Japan. It has taken a lot of time, energy, and dedication to reach this point, and the story behind these innovative products makes them just that much more special.

In 2011, the Fitzgeralds’ lives were turned upside down. 26-year-old Kezia Fitzgerald was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in January, and just 3 and a half months later her then 11-month-old daughter, Saoirse (pronounced seer-sha), was diagnosed with Stage 4 high risk Neuroblastoma. Saoirse’s diagnosis was followed by immediate treatment. She had a PICC Line placed in her arm to administer medication and fluids. Immediately, Saoirse’s skin had a bad reaction to the tape used to hold the PICC line in place (very common, even with the sensitivity tape), and she wanted to chew and tug on the line constantly, as any one-year-old would. It was stressful for everyone.

The next morning, Kezia arrived at the hospital with a little sleeve that she thought would allow them to secure Saoirse’s PICC line safely without the use of irritating tape, keeping the lines and caps off of her skin, and at the same time keep her from playing with it, teething on it, tugging at it or getting it caught on external objects: possibly ripping it out.  It worked! It was simple, comfortable for her to wear, and when Kezia put it on her, Saoirse forgot about her PICC Line. She went back to playing with her toys, and ignored her new accessory. Three weeks later, Saoirse had her PICC line removed and a Central Line placed in her chest.

The Fitzgerald’s were facing the same problem with the lines and caps with the Central Line. The lines were hanging down into her diaper and she was constantly getting them caught on things. So Kezia went back to the sewing machine and made a wrap to go around Saoirse’s chest, protecting her and her Central Line. The Central Line Wrap is tubular, so it keeps the lines off of the skin and has a spot to protect the caps while not in use. Saoirse wore her sleeve and wrap 24 hours a day. It made the Fitzgeralds’ lives easier, because they didn’t have to worry about Saoirse’s lines getting caught on things, or being exposed to contamination.

CareAline Products now designs and manufactures functional wraps and sleeves for patients with Central Lines (Broviac/Hickman,), G-GJ Tubes and PICC Lines. Their products secure the lines and caps off of patients skin without the use of medial tape, helping to reduce the hundreds of thousands of tape infections and irritations per year from securing lines and caps with medical tape. People who have cancer, Lyme disease, short gut syndrome, cystic fibrosis, or need TPN, among many other conditions, use their products. 

CareAline Products have many benefits to the patient, parents, caregivers, nurses and hospitals in general.  The garment does not need to be removed for treatment or scans, which makes CareAline™ the first functional medical grade garments for PICC Lines, Central Lines and G-GJ Tubes. All of CareAline products are machine washable and dryable and are meant for single patient use.

 

To name a few benefits

• Eliminate the use of additional tape to keep your PICC or Central lines in place (does not replace sterile dressing)
• Sleeves have a pocket to store Caps and line extensions 
• Reduces or eliminates tape irritation on patient’s skin
• Keeps lines and caps off of patients skin – great way to manage lines and caps
• Peace of mind for Parents, Patients and Caregivers
• Potentially reduce line infections
• Hospitals potentially save thousands on emergency repairs of Lumens and emergency surgeries
• Hospitals potentially save thousands in reduced tape infections/irritations
• Latex Free

 

For a full list please visit: carealine.com/carealine-benefits/

 

Medical Facilities please contact one of our distributors below or call CareAline Products and we will connect you with a distributor to fit your needs.

 

CareAline™ Products Announces new specialty medical product distribution contracts. Below is a list of distributors. For more information on becoming a distributor please call Mike 617-548-7419 or email mike@carealine.com

 

USA

Spalding Surgical LLC

Phone:  615.772.1518

Fax: 888.450.4438

carealine@spaldingsurgicalllc.com

 

USA Co-Brand

Providing Sleeves and Wraps under the name LineAssure™

Vermed, Inc.


9 Lovell Drive


Bellows Falls, VT 05101-1556,

(800) 245 – 4025


info@vermed.com

http://www.vermed.com

 

Canada

VRRK Medical Innovations Inc.

140-577 Great Northern Way

Vancouver, BC, V5T 1E1

Canada

1-877-510-6812

order@vrrk.ca

info@vrrk.ca

www.vrrk.ca

 

 

Australia

Southern Cross Bio Pty Ltd

133 Alexander Street Crows Nest

Sydney  NSW 2065 Australia 

Call: 02 94327859


Fax: 02 8079 0799

info@scbio.com.au

www.scbio.com.au 

 

If you would like to schedule an interview with us, please contact Mike at 617-548-7419 or email info@CareAline.com.