NANN Conference and Preemie Parent Alliance

After an amazing trip to Disney, I started to refocused and prepared for my trip to Nashville, TN.  I was asked to share my story about Kendall at the National Association of Neonatal Nurses Conference just days before the twins 3rd birthday.  Although honored to present, this time of year is especially difficult as the memories of some of the hardest days of our lives are brought back to the surface.  The goal of the presentation was to share the scenario, ask nurses to volunteer to roll play how they would have handled the situation and then have me conclude with the actual events that took place.  My goal was to share how difficult it was to take Kendall off the ventilator as Cole was going into cardiac arrest and to provide ideas for what I think could have helped during this challenging experience.

Although not a flawless presentation, I know from the tears in the audience that my story was understood and hope that sharing it gets easier with time.  If I am able to help just one nurse who can in turn help just one parent, then my experience is worth every moment of reliving that heart wrenching experience.  I have been asked to present again at the National Neonatologists Conference in February and hope I can share my story in a meaningful way once again.

In addition to supporting the presentation, I represented Preemies Today at the Preemie Parent Alliance trade show booth that was part of the conference.  All 23 organizations that are part of the Preemie Parent Alliance were formed by preemie parents to support other preemie parents.  I spent five days with an amazing group of men and women who shared their stories willingly and openly.  Each story bringing it's own unique experience to the journey of being a preemie parent.  After the NANN Conference the Preemie Parent Alliance had a separate meeting to share best practices for managing our individual groups and gathering new ideas for supporting other parents.