Scott S. Craun Foundation: No Packed Red Blood Cells or Platelets on Monday Oct 24th

Our Mission:

The Scott S. Craun Foundation is a non-profit charity created by Scott Craun (1975-2011), a registered nurse in Honolulu, Hawaii. Before Scott passed away from Multiple Myeloma, he took the initial steps to establish a fund that could perpetually aid island-bound cancer patients. Multiple Myeloma is a rare blood cell cancer. Scott's know-how as a health care provider AND a cancer patient lent his mission a laser focus on a specific population. Relatively, there are not many myeloma patients in Hawaii (less than 400). The nearest support groups are in California. This charity will make an important difference in the quality of some of these lives. Like Scott, these patients were told, "You have an 'incurable cancer.' Eventually, you will have to take a break from your work. And the most specialized treatment centers are 2500 miles away."

Scott's wish is to provide Hawaii's myeloma patients (or one family member/care-giver) with round-trip airfare to the Continental US for any oncologist-recommended treatment not available in Hawaii. Stem cell transplant, for example, can be a key to prolonging life--sometimes by years--as it was for Scott. Twice Scott experienced the hardships of this relocation for transplant. Scott had many of us to help him through this burden and he was eternally grateful; many other patients are not nearly as networked. Scott became acutely aware of their immediate need. He left behind documents outlining a non-profit based on incremental goals and longevity as priorities over huge sums of money. Ultimate success means for us to be still providing at least one annual flight on the day Hawaii is capable of all specialized myeloma patient technology. Or, even better: on the day MM is no longer deemed "incurable."

To turn Scott's efforts into reality, we will need your help. One annual donation per person--of any amount--is welcomed, along with your suggestions, fundraising ideas, and maybe a few volunteer hours at our events. All who donate will receive a personal message from our foundation updating you on our balance, expenses, number of donors, upcoming fundraisers, and goals. The specific language in our tax exempt 501(c)3 will be transparent to all. We report to every single donor as if they were an investor, beacause they are. The way we give to patients will be on a very personal basis, and we'll share those stories here. Thank you, stay tuned, and thanks to Scott for pointing us in the right direction! We're going to take what he started . . . and keep it going for as long as there is a demand.

Scott S. Craun Foundation. Domestic Nonprofit Corporation, State of Hawaii File No. 235294 D2.

Make out checks to: / send mail to:
Scott S. Craun Foundation
2700 S. King Street
Unit 11564
Honolulu, HI 96828
ph. (808) 772-0408

CraunFoundation@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

No Packed Red Blood Cells or Platelets on Monday Oct 24th

This is the first time in the past 2 months (give or take) that I did not need a transfusion of PRBC longer then a week. It has been 10 days since my last Red Blood Cell transfusion. But what made it a nice day was that I did not need Platelets today either. I did just receiver platelets on Friday so that is part of it. Donor platelets tend to last about 72 hours after infusion. So more then likely I will have a long day on Thursday.

7:30 Lab draw - 8:00am registration and Port-a-cath to be accessed - 9:00am Chemotherapy (premeditation for nausea & side effects for the Chemo around 8:30am - 10:30-11:00am premedication for blood transfusion. 11:00 - 1130am transfusions start. That is if all goes to plan and the RN's / Lab cooperates with the plan and does not make a mistake. Platelet will take 45 minutes from start to finish. The PRBC will take over 2 hours each. Not to mention a little time between (RN availability, picking up the units of blood, Patient verification, which takes 2 RN's) each unit. That can sometimes be half a hour. So the 3 units will take 5 1/2 hours at the minimum. Then my port has to be removed vital signs checked one more time and the following weeks appointments made. So best case I leave by 6pm give of take... Just in case you wanted to get an idea about my transfusion and infusion days.