November is PH Awareness Month

[Kaye Norlin]

I am talking- A LOT!!!!! Posters are hung.

[Brittany Foster]

That’s awesome Kaye! Thank you for spreading some much needed awareness. What are the posters like?

[Vanessa Vaile]

There is no PH, lung, or breathing emoji — but I did find 💙 and 🦋. The PH Europe logo is a butterfly (visual metaphor for lungs) on top of a blue heart. This logo especially appeals to me since my first name means “butterfly” in Classic Greek. IMO — as trivial as it might sound — getting one in the Emoji Encyclopedia would facilitate social media PH awareness campaigns.

After using the tool for putting my FB profile pic in a #PHawareness frame, I ended up discard the image because I didn’t like the way it displayed. Instead I am making an to post and share PH awareness information — article links, images, videos — daily across multiple platforms.

On Twitter, I changed my profile image on @VanessaVaile to a butterfly on a blue heart, which won’t mean much to most viewers until I photo edit to add copy… and now a change of frame and image for my Facebook timeline.

Alas, I just missed live #PHAwarenessChat on Twitter despite setting myself calendar reminders. That is bound to happen when you type pm for am. I’ve participated in many lively Twitter chats — educators are big on them. This was more like a lecture than a conversation. I’ll make a Twitter Moment to collect the best posts and share the link here.

[Brittany Foster]

Vanessa,
I’m surprised there’s no lung emoji!!! There should be. There’s so many different types of lung disease. I have spoken for the American Lung Association before. I want to advocate for this and make this emoji happen. I love the butterfly symbolism though ! There is a symbol for air too looks like a triangle with a line through it. I wanted to get a tattoo of it on my ribcage that is the air symbol and then says “inhale exhale” incorporated on it. I have a few meaningful tattoos and love symbolism !

I’m so glad you are continuing to spread awareness this month and are posting articles. I hope others will take the time to read them. I know that I have posted a few columns from writers like myself and other writers for Bionews too that are meaninful to me and that I can relate to. When I’m not able to write about how I feel on certain topics or struggle finding the words, it always seems like another writer is able to find the words for me.

Keep up updated on the twitter chat and what you got out of it. I don’t like the lecture type chats and would love for the setup to be more discussion based ! Keep being a great advocate ! I can tell you’re so passionate about this. THANK YOU for all you do !!

[Vanessa Vaile]

@brittany-foster ~ getting a lung+heart emoji is a goal for next year. IMO we should start with getting the lung emoji — and involving the American Lung Association.

I didn’t do as much as I had hoped — this post diagnostic life make over is more time consuming than I expected. Not that I’m complaining: it beats the alternatives. Anyway, PH awareness is now high on my advocacy to-do list.

[Brittany Foster]

Hi Vanessa,
That is a great idea, and I will bring it up and see what the Lung Association can do for this! I’m glad that you are becoming passionate about raising awareness. Putting my focus on awareness and advocacy can be a great motivator for me !

[Vanessa Vaile]

“becoming passionate about raising awareness”? More like I’ve been at it for years — social justice, education, labor, etc — the online variety since the late 90s. fwiw, my personal PH awareness efforts will also take note of and support affordable access to healthcare for all.

[Brittany Foster]

Thank you for all you do Vanessa!!! You’re truly a great role model for this community and I’m sure many others. Your passion is inspiring.