A Touch of Scarlett, our journey with a rare bleeding disorder

Dear HFNC's Family Camp attendees, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all that helped take care of my princess this weekend. . . It was amazing to watch the community step up to give Scarlett the best camp experience while I was hauled up in the cabin taking care of her brother. I'm touched and forever grateful for all that you did. This weekend was the ever anticipated Hemophilia Foundation of N.California 's Annual Family Camp. My daughter and I attended last year for the first time and had a life changing experience. We had been looking forward to this years' ever since. Unfortunately, I'd be lying if I said the trip didn't start off on the wrong foot to begin with. Several days before we were supposed to be leaving, I was suffering though horrible pains and was questioning my own participation in the weekend. But I was ready to fight through it, in hopes of giving Walker the Family Camp experience he had been begging for, since his sister and I returned...

This is a write up I did for BleedFree, Inc. back in January. . . Hello my name is Kari Peepe and I have Platelet Storage Pool Disorder.  Sometimes I feel like I should come with a stamp, that says WARNING! When my daughter and I got diagnosed with the rare bleeding disorder-PSPD. . . I've never felt so alone. The Dr.'s made me feel like our lives would change forever and that our daughter would never live like a "normal" child.  So I walked away from that first appointment picturing a life full of Dr's appointments, bleeding episodes, medications, and a lot of trips to the ER. Not to mention all my fears about the social impact this would have on her, once she reached grade school. But. . .  What I didn't foresee, was the friendships that I would find. My bleeder buddies have become such a huge part of my life, sometimes I forget that I've never even met these "friends" before. Friends I've known forever have slowly drifted away, an...