Blog 4 CHD and Other Ways to Raise Awareness

You may have noticed a new button on my blog. My friend, Levi, started a blog dedicated to raising awareness about CHD. It is a place where we can all go and post our stories, our efforts at raising awareness, our struggles and our prayer requests. Plus, much much more. Please click on the button and register your blog today! Levi will set up your account and you will be able to author stories on the site.

Also, please check out http://1in100.org. My friend, Annamarie Saarinen began this organization and she is doing great things with CHD related legislation. The site is just now getting up and running, but please stay tuned for updates on her efforts in DC and in her home state of Minnesota. She is working hard to have newborn screening measures include Pulse Oximetry to detect complex (and fatal if not treated ASAP) CHDs. This 5 minute test SAVES LIVES. Please, have your newborn tested, even if there's not CHD history in your family. Insist upon it. Too many babies die needlessly because they were not given this test.

Lastly, my faithful readers, I implore you to truly join us in our fight. If you are not sure how to do this, please ask me. While we all work to try and figure out how to best combine our efforts and truly bring a strong, united front to CHD Awareness, we can all do our individual parts. Include a blurb about CHD on your email signature. Link your blog to mine or any other blog dedicated to raising awareness about CHD. Check out www.itsmyheart.org and consider starting a chapter in your area or joining if one already exists. Wear red all year long, but especially the week of 2/7/10-2/14/10. Purchase CHD Awareness apparel from www.cafepress.com or It's My Heart specifically. Awareness about Autism didn't start overnight, but in the past 7 yrs or so, it's reached astronomical levels. We can do this too. Our incidence is even higher than that of Autism, yet Autism is considered an epidemic and no one outside the CHD community knows a thing about CHD. You can help change this! Won't you please join us?