This installment is coming at you from sunny (read: rainy) Florida!

Sterilizing Nebs on the Go

It’s been awhile since I’ve taken a vacation longer than a long weekend, maybe 3 years or so? With any extended vacation comes the question of how many neb cups am I going to take and how am I going to sterilize them? I took a risk and tried something new on this trip, and I’m happy I did.

For years I endorsed the electronic teakettle…. I am about to reverse that position.

Enter the baby bottle steamer bags.

The steamer bags are a game changer. They’re small, reusable, cheap, and, most importantly, quick. They use a similar sterilizing procedure as the larger baby bottle steamer (we’ve got a Step-by-Step video coming soon to show how I use that), and that’s by way of a microwave. As it turns out, most hotel rooms have a microwave, and if they don’t, you can call ahead and ask for one in the room – we had to call this time around.

I had my personal photographer (read: girlfriend) document one of my sterilizing sessions.

Swipe through the @Breathe_In_Pod Insta slide show to check out the procedure:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiveggYA8p-/?hl=en&taken-by=breathe_in_pod

From start to finish, the whole procedure takes about 7 minutes to sterilize 4 nebs, and adding on more nebs really wouldn’t extend that time.

G-Tube Body Image 

Time at the beach is always a great time to tell the world, “I have a chronic illness!” The g-tube is a very visible part of my invisible illness… especially when I take my shirt off. As I said on Instagram over the weekend, it did take quite awhile for me to be confident enough to walk around shirtless after I had my g-tube placed. I’m not so sure I know why… after all I have no problem being out in public with a PICC line and IV hanging off my arm. The feeding tube was, at least initially, different. Finally my dad gave me a word of advice before heading back to school in August 2011, “Why the f*ck should you care what other people think?” and that was the end of it. I came to the conclusion that my g-tube was changing my life for the better, and that I had to accept it one way or another. Now if anyone sees it for the first time, or is shocked, I’m pleased to explain what it is and what it’s doing for me. Most people are happy to learn.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BisO3rUFDV5/?hl=en&taken-by=esiason17g

For those of you keeping score at home… we did not plan to match our swimsuits… it just kind of happened.

Aussie bro donates blood, saves 2 million babies

Okay this story is crazy.

This dude, James Harrison (not of the NFL), in Australia donated blood just about every week for 60 years, and according to the Australian Red Cross, “helped saved the lives of more than 2.4 million babies.”

As it would turn out, his blood is very unique. It contains, “disease-fighting antibodies that have been used to develop an injection called Anti-D, which helps fight against rhesus disease.” Rhesus disease can be deadly for babies.

Anti-D is an injection given to pregnant women who may be at risk of passing on rhesus disease to their babies because a certain kind of antibody in their blood. In Australia, “more than 17% of women” are at risk to this issue. Incredibly, “every batch of Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from James’ blood.”

This is a classic people helping people story. Awesome. Last week James “retired” from donating blood because he’s now 81, which is too old to donate blood in Australia. It’s just a fantastic example of a selfless man helping make the Earth a better place for millions of people (but actually…millions).

…And that’s what I’m thinking about today!