CHIARI AWARENESS TOUR MEMORIES: Part 2 By PETE DAL BELLO September 9 was the second day of the first-ever Chiari Awareness Tour (Sept. 8-15) as Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia were the states that I visited. I had picked up my wine (San Pietro Dal Bello) that morning and I was hoping to ship it to my cousins liquor store in Santa Barbara, California that day. Unfortunately, another law (this one was a tri-state law affecting Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia) kept me from shipping it out and left me with the following thought: Im running out of states as I hope that I can ship it out of Virginia or North Carolina. Here are pictures of the West Virginia Welcome Sign and a State of Ohio Department of Transportation Memorial. I talked to at least three people at the Ohio location, including a man who worked at the rest area mopping the floor and making sure that there was enough maps, etc., but no one knew what city or town we were in. The others were travelers like myself, but I do know that we were near St. Clairsville. At the International Chiari Association (ICA), I talk to Chiarians every day. On occasion, I am asked how many Chiarians do I talk to (phone, e-mail, etc.) in a year. It is difficult to answer as I dont keep this statistic as I just want to help people. If I were to take a conservative guess about how many Chiarians and people that care about them that I talk to, then I would say 2,500. Obviously, most of the information is confidential. Sometimes people tell me things before they even tell their spouse and/or other family members. Sometimes people contact me from their hospital beds. There are many Chiarians in Ohio and one of the sufferers that I met is a married woman concerned about her health and if she can hold on to her job. Her boss doesnt know that she has Chiari and she is naturally worried that she will lose her job if it became known. She is also obviously concerned how long she will be able to do her job because of Chiari. Unfortunately, there are many people that live as Silent Chiarians and I respect their wishes and try to help them as much as I can. Each persons situation is different and I have talked to many people with similar concerns since I started the ICA in 2011. I told her that there are many people like her and I convinced her to let me briefly write about her as long as I only revealed that she is a married woman with Chiari in Ohio that is worried about her losing her job because of this serious neurological disorder. It is an honor … To read MORE, please click on the following link: chiariassociation.org/newsroom/column/chiari-awareness-tour-memories-part-2
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 04:57:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015