AlphaMale

Yearning to breathe free

The most famous lines of "The New Collosus," the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, are these:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

That last line seems perfect for an Alpha with lung disease, doesn't it?

The guys who did this video thought so, anyway. The two-minute video ends with an image that can't possibly be legit.

But it looks pretty convincing, doesn't it?

Full Tilt Boogie...

...is the name of a song by singer/songwriter L.J. Coon.

It's also a line dance, created and performed by 75 or so people with COPD who are dancing to draw attention to COPD and how good an idea it is to do something fun -- like dancing -- to keep yourself active and fit.

Katelyn Harding at the COPD Foundation interviews Donna Lee, one of the line dance's creators, here.

Or hear the song and see the line dance.

Blood on the cover

There's a new cover for the Alpha-1 Coded Testing (ACT) brochure.

Here it is.

Q: Is that a good cover photo?

The brochure tells about the Alpha-1 Coded Testing Study at the Medical University of South Carolina. If you'd like to get tested for Alpha-1, but you're afraid to have the test on your medical record, you can get free, confidential testing here, thanks to the Alpha-1 Foundation.

The cover shows Michael Campos, MD, lifting lung cells, including Alpha-1 cells, from a super-cooled tank at his lab. Somebody suggested the cover photo SHOULD show a finger and a card with three little spots of blood on it. You need to do a home finger-stick and donate three spots of blood for the test. You get a little kit that makes it easy and painless, (I tried it; I wasn't sure I'd done it till I saw a little drop of blood forming at the tip of my finger.)

But a picture of blood might scare people off. No?

What do you think?

Two days left

Two days left to speak up:

If you haven't given your opinions on the Alpha-1 Community Survey, you have just two days left to do it. The survey is easy to do. It only takes about 10-15 minutes.

The survey is for Alphas and Alpha-1 carriers only. (Any wannabe Alphas out there are out of luck.)

You can do it here.

Heroes don't usually walk...

...They fly.

See me doing that.

Yes, here I am at work, saving mankind. Womankind, too.

Want to help me do it?

Survey: Making it easy

Many people are having trouble doing the Alpha-1 community survey sponsored by the Alpha-1 Foundation and Alpha-1 Association. If you're one of those people, here's a quick and easy link to the survey. 

Click here.

(If you have already done the survey, please DON'T do it again.)

The problem many people had: The survey instructions were to type this in the address bar of your browser: Alpha-1Survey.org.

If you do that, it works perfectly. But many people don't know what the address bar is. (It's at the very top of this page, where it says http://alphamale.typepad.com/) Many people typed the line into their browser's search box (the box next to the big word Google, if you're using Google). If you put the line there, it doesn't work.

It's a simple mistake, but easy for people to do.

The Foundation has also posted the easy link on its Home page, and also in its news item announcing the survey.

Why not just do that in the first place? Because a professional survey consultant advised NOT to post the link. He said it could skew and complicate the results. In important ways, it would not be as "clean" a survey.

But making it easy for Alphas and carriers to answer the survey seems more important still.

How NOT to use an inhaler

An oldie but a goodie from the popular TV show House:

 

How to use your inhaler

You think you already know how?

Maybe you do. But even though I used a rescue inhaler for many years, whenever a professional asked me to show how I used the inhaler, I always got it wrong. Always.

These days, I don't use a rescue inhaler anymore. But I use Spiriva and Advair every day.

Here's a website that shows, in brief videos with real people, how to use almost any inhaler.

Enjoy.

Thanks to Sunnie Sandie for forwarding this through Facebook.

Double-duty dog needed

If ever there was a family that would get huge benefits from one trained dog, it would be this family in Arizona.

A little more time for Alpha-1 survey

 A letter recently mailed to thousands of Alphas and Alpha-1 carriers across the United States asked them to fill out a survey on their opinions and experiences about:

• The Alpha-1 community programs now available
• What you think the community needs most right now
  
• Whether you're having problems with access to medical care
• Where we need to advocate on behalf of Alphas as the healthcare reform changes continue.
• And anything else you want to comment on.

The survey deadline was supposed to be today, Jan. 21. Unfortunately, the U.S. Post Office took an average of 12 days to deliver the letters (sent First Class).

For that reason...

The deadline has been extended to Thursday, Feb. 3.

The survey is a collaboration between the Alpha-1 Foundation and the Alpha-1 Association.

More information here: