Hoofbeats Don't Always Mean Horses

Hello and welcome to the first day of Karen Burniston's October 2015 Designer Challenge: Characters in Costume.  I thought this would be the perfect time to create a purple Zebra card and share some information about Pulmonary Hypertension. Now this is a long post, with lots of information. As a thank you for reading it and raising awareness for Pulmonary Hypertension, Elizabeth Craft Designs has generously donated a GIVE-AWAY of the Barn Pop Stand, Fence Pop Stand, Western Edges and Cocoa the Horse. Wow!! Keep reading to see how you can win these dies!

For those of you who follow my blog, you know that our 4 year old Granddaughter Olivia was diagnosed with advanced Pulmonary Hypertension last September.  I hope you will spend a few minutes today and read my whole post.  Pulmonary Hypertension can strike anyone regardless of age, sex, social or ethnic background. You may learn something that will help get someone you know early treatment, which is critical.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare but very complex and serious lung disease, which is progressive and fatal. PH is defined by high blood pressure in the lungs, which leads to enlargement and weakness of the right-side of the heart, a serious type of heart failure.

PH is difficult to diagnose because it shares many of its symptoms with other conditions. Because of this, many people are misdiagnosed. Without treatment, the average life expectancy of a PH patient is less than three years. Ironically, many patients spend 2-3 years of their life seeking an accurate diagnosis.

It is estimated that approximately 5,000 Canadians have been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, but as many as 10,000 may be affected by the condition. Currently, there exists no cure for this disease, but nine PH-specific treatment options have been approved by Health Canada since 1997. Thanks to these advancements, many PH patients are living longer and healthier lives. There are innumerable stories of PH patients beating the odds and living with the disease for 10, 20, or even 30 years!

We hope and Pray our Olivia can beat even those odds.

Why does a Zebra have anything to do with such a devastating disease? The Pulmonary Hypertension Association of Canada helped me with that question:

"Among healthcare providers, the zebra is a metaphor for an unexpected diagnosis or rare condition. When first learning how to reach a diagnosis, young medical professionals are taught, "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." Through this example medical students are encouraged to first think of the more common, and therefore more likely, diagnosis. 

This logic makes sense, most of the time, but also helps to partly explain why PH is often misdiagnosed as other more common diseases (such as Asthma) which share symptoms with PH." You can watch a short video and find more information about this on our early diagnosis site: www.phacanada.ca/sometimesitsph

Here is the front of my card. Since periwinkle is the colour for PH, I was happy to have found purple zebra striped paper!! The barn from the Barn Pop Stand set works perfectly as a flat barn as well, so that is how I used it here.

Inside, I used the Fence Pop Stand and turned Cocoa the Horse into a Purple Zebra. For a chance to win both of these dies as well as the Western Edges and the Barn Pop Stand, please COMMENT, LIKE and SHARE my Purple Zebra Card on Facebook. You can find me on FB here.  Not on Facebook? Pin my card and leave me a comment here letting me know what Pinterest board you pinned it to. We want to raise awareness about Pulmonary Hypertension and you can help with that! I will use a random number generator to choose the winner, on Friday October 16th at 9pm MST. (One entry per person, please).

I am loving the new Soft Finish Card Stock from Elizabeth Craft Designs, so used it to create the card base. All the colour was added using PanPastels. For the inner card, the mountains were cut from the top and the hills from the bottom. The inside of the front panels create the edges for the sun and sky, as well as the grassy area.

Looking after a Special Needs child requires a lot of work. PH is one of those 'Invisible Diseases' and is quite isolating for the family. While they were able to join us for Thanksgiving Dinner this weekend - most times they miss family get togethers because Olivia is so susceptible to illness and they need to keep her away from people with colds etc. I like to make our daughter and her husband Love Notes so they know we support them with all our hearts.

THANK YOU for hanging in and reading all the information here.

Also, Thank you to Karen Burniston for being so supportive and letting me shine the spotlight on Pulmonary Hypertension in my Designer Challenge Post. Last but not least, Thank you to Els and Elizabeth Craft Designs for offering this amazing give-away!

Below are a couple of pictures of Olivia, and some important links for Pulmonary Hypertension. I've included links for the countries of my Designer Challenge Teammates as well:

Pulmonary Hypertension Association of Canada
We accept different types of donations. All the information can be found here: www.phacanada.ca/donate 
They are also in the middle of a membership drive and offering free memberships as a way to show support for the PH community. We encourage all those who want to show their support to sign up as a PH Supporter: www.phacanada.ca/phsupporter

Pulmonary Hypertension Association USA

Pulmonary Hypertension Association UK

Pulmonary Hypertension Association Australia

When you have PH, you can go from this (above) to this (below) in a matter of hours.

Card Supplies:
Cocoa the Horse, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Fence Pop Stand, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Barn Pop Stand, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Western Edges (mountains), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Beach Edges (hills), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Outdoor Edges (grass), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Hay There Pop Stand, Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Flourished Gift Frame (rectangle), Pop it Ups - Karen Burniston (Elizabeth Craft Designs) COMING SOON
Elizabeth Craft Designs Transparent Double Sided Adhesive, 6" and 1/8" widths
Black Velvet Adhesive Sheet - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Fine Point Tweezers - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Pan Pastels, #1, #2 and #3 - Elizabeth Craft Designs
Hairspray (to set the pastels)
Purple Zebra patterned paper - The Paper Studio
Grey Card stock
Periwinkle card stock
Black card stock
Fun Foam
Scrap of yellow card stock
Computer & printer
Soft Finish Card Stock (100#) - Elizabeth Craft Designs

Thanks for stopping by today