What a Week Food Allergy Folks!

Wow, what a week it has been. The snowball that started last fall finally caught some air. Last September, Bloomberg was busy conducting interviews about the high prices of the EpiPen® epinephrine auto-injector and were specifically focused on Mylan®. Then slowly other media stories grew and grew until the volcano burst after a petition calling for action hit. Thankfully, so much good will come from all of this. Family focused as we settled my son into college last weekend we returned home to a hectic week. So I’m still trying to catch up on the all the articles, posts and comments and I’m just captivated by it all.
As I am reading, I see frustrated, angry and exhausted people. I am watching angry exchanges unfold between friends as people debate what should be, what is fact and the zillion details about how corporations, Big Pharma and non-profits do their work together. I am reading blurbs of people feeling like they just ran a marathon and others who are simply pooped out. Everyone has participated on some level of response.
The one biggest lessons I have learned over the years, as an active advocate, it is very easy to place family and are our health and well-being on the back burner to advocate. Advocacy requires immediate response and can’t be scheduled, so it is easy to skip lunch, schedule a baby sitter or miss time with a loved one. It is clear that his event is important and requires quite a bit of energy.
Therefore, I want to urge everyone to consider just stepping back and take a sweet and lovely deep breath in and find some zen. There is no doubt this is the mere tip of the iceberg and real work, the hard work, is about to begin. So, recharge and don’t forget about you and your family—the reason we all do what we do.