Oley Foundation Conference 2013

Hello everyone! I hope you all are enjoying your summers. I just got back from holiday in Cape Cod, Massachusetts where I attended the annual Oley Conference. To refresh anyone's memory, the Oley foundation is a foundation dedicated to helping people on HPN ( home parenteral nutrition) or EN (Enteral Nutrition).

Every year they hold a conference where patients all around the world come to share their experiences, learn about new technologies, and meet people with similar situations to gain support from each other. 

On Wednesday morning me, my mom, and my sister all got up early, grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. We got our boarding passes and went to wait in line for security. Whenever I travel I always have to carry my TPN (also known as HPN) through security. Pretty much every time I have gone through security I have to have a pat down. It's always a bit annoying, but I understand why it's necessary. 

We arrived in Boston and drove down to Cape Cod. After checking in to the conference hotel we went and registered for the conference. 

The conference was split into four days. Wednesday was a welcome day. Thursday and Friday were filled with interesting presentations about the new technology and treatments that are being researched or are starting to be used in practice and smaller breakout sessions where smaller groups got together and talked about topics important to them. There were many different sessions. Saturday was the farewell.

It was a very busy four days but I learned a lot, I met a lot of very nice people that I was able to talk to about my experiences living with my condition.

I went to a session about how being sterile when working with your iv is critically important and how each step taken toward cleanliness is another day not spent in the hospital. I went to one on maintaining hydration and we talked about all the different ways we can stay hydrated, by drinking fluids or eating certain foods. I went to a session talking about how to take control of your medical condition and start making decisions about your own health. I also went to a session about dating with a medical condition. How to explain your medical condition and how to have the confidence to put yourself out there.

As always I had an amazing time and I hope we can go again next year.

I hope you all are enjoying the sunshine and I am sorry for taking so long to post this, I have been crazy busy. An old friend has come to visit me here on the east coast and I have been catching up and sightseeing with her. Please have a wonderful day and I will talk to you soon. Adiós!