Are You Aware?

Like I mentioned last week, LC was born with a birth defect called congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Her defect wasn't caught on ultrasound, so it was quite a surprise when she was born. Until about 8am on 8-11-05, we had no clue this birth defect existed. Had you heard about it before you met someone who has dealt with CDH? Didn't think so.

Why is this defect so unknown? It occurs with the same incidence as spina bifida and cystic fibrosis. Betcha heard of those, right? It is also a very serious birth defect. It isn't really clear what the survival rate, but it may be anywhere from 50% to 75% (pure guess there). THere are way too many angels in heaven who got their wings from CDH. Other complications from CDH are too numerous to list. Somehow we got off "easy" and I'm still wondering why.

This is your chance to help spread the word. I have two challenges for you:

1. If you are a lurker (and I hope there are a few of you out there, otherwise my audience is about 5 people) I challenge you to de-lurk sometime this week. For everyone who makes a comment this week on any post, I will donate a book to Connor's Books. You can read about it here. Connor was born with CDH and shares a birthday with EE. Let's see how many books we can donate for this cause.

2. Tell 2 people about CDH. Just mention "Have you ever heard of this?" Just to get people thinking.

If you have a chance, stop by another CDH mom blog. Here is one I highly recommened. From there you can link yourself to many other stories. Or take a look at this site to learn some additional information. Or you can read LC's entire story here.