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Since this is “EB Awareness Week” (#EBawarenessweek) I wanted to write a short blog about what is like to have a child with Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa. For me, it means having to inspect every inch of my son’s skin every night. It means taking a sterile needle to lance every new blister and drain them so they don’t get any larger. It means deciding how to bandage each wound, because they all need different ointments and bandages depending onRead More →

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For EB Awareness week this year I want to take a moment and give everyone a rundown of the horrible side effect of RDEB and the mittening of the hands and how I found out about it and how we dealt with it. Of course hindsight is 20/20 as with everything else with EB. When Nicky was born the information I was given and I found did not mention this particular problem. The internet in 1996 was worthless. The onlyRead More →

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I am slowly adding all the episodes of “Butterfly Talk” on YouTube as time allows for your listening and viewing pleasure. Butterfly Talk is a monthly radio show/podcast I run myself. The episodes not only are available on the Blog Talk Radio website but also on iTunes. Putting them on YouTube expands the audience, the more awareness the better! This was the first “official” episode with my good friend Lorraine Montello as my first guest. Her son Garrett has RDEBRead More →

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This is part 6 of an infinite series of photos I am posting on the Facebook page I have for the book I wrote about my journey raising my son with RDEB (Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa) called Butterfly Child. I am posting a few images from Nicky’s life and commenting on either what was going on at the time or explaining things about the picture per se. This “picture commentary” will serve as a companion for anyone that is kind enough to purchase andRead More →

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One would think that after 18+ years, nothing about EB would surprise me anymore. Well, it does. EB still manages to shock us at what it can do and how it manifests itself. Last night as I was taking off a bandage from Nicky’s upper left arm, it looked as if an infection (pus) was setting in a wound-but not in the usual way. Normally the pus (I know, yuk, but EB can be just majorly yucky) fills up aRead More →

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On our first trip to Stanford, back in August 1997, Dr. McGuire told us something that would forever be etched in my mind. He told us that the #1 enemy and the #1 reason for the demise for children with RDEB was infections. To say he scared me to death in one sentence it’s the understatement of the year. Not only he confirmed his RDEB diagnosis, but also mentioned the word ‘death’ and ‘infections’ in it. Fantastic. This was aboutRead More →

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I will be done with my book real soon, and then comes the hard part of selling it or self-publish it, we’ll see. However, in the new year, I want Nicky himself to be able to answer questions on a video I will make of him which I will then upload to YouTube. So, ASK away by leaving a message below on the facebook plug-in. Please be kind and sensitive, it’s all I ask. Nicky is truly a trooper, heRead More →

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I wanted to share this picture of Nicky’s right hand a year post surgery. It’s doing fantastic! We do wrap the hand religiously and use the splint every night to keep the opening between the thumb and index finger intact, and while we lost a bit on the pinky, it is still ‘straight’, which means it does not pull the wrist inside, which is really great regardless. Even if it gets webbed again, as long as it stays straight NickyRead More →