Atlanta, GA v.2 09/14/06
(x-posted in the Veritaz Productions Blog )
I am sitting in Dominic's dorm room at SCADATL listening to the bell
tower across the street playing America the Beautiful. I can hear the
bells ever so faintly from across the street above the sounds of
traffic and people walking and talking around the dorm building. How
pleasent it is to be able to open the door and just keep it open to
the warm September air. Not bad. Best of all, Nick is sitting right
infront of me capturing countless hours of video (61 hours and
counting to be exact) into our portable editing system. The footage
looks amazing and I seriously couldn't be more excited to tear into
it.
Yesterday, Nick and I got a call from Robin, Alexa's mom, at around
9am. When we listened to the message we found out that she thought it would be best if we just did all of our filming of Alexa in one giant swoop. This meant that we would have to be over at her house (about 40 minutes from where we were staying) by 4pm to be able to be there when her mom picks her up from girl scouts. We'd then stay over that night and sleep at their house in order to be able to capture one of Alexa's morning routines on film. We did all of this and got some very good coverage of the every-day life of Alexa. In doing so, we discovered how much some of these children really must go through as an after effect of their experimental cancer treatments.
Alexa and her sister Jenna helping cook dinner while we shoot video
In short, Alexa, because of the cancer treatments that saved her life, has lung disease and other lung issues that only allow for 11% lung capacity. She has to be hooked up to oxygen tubes ALL OF THE TIME, go through 2 treatments a day where she has to wear this vest that pumps a frequency of 12hz onto her chest, thumping her whole body in order to break up some of the build up in her lungs. She also has to take a plethra of pills and medicines as well as additional breathing treatments that shoot vapor into her lungs. When she sleeps at night she has to wear this tube that is a little larger than a roll of quarters underneath her nose that has openings that she pushes into her nostrles. It is triggered by her breathing and it pushes a little more air than she would normally be able to take in naturally into her lungs to allow more carbon dioxide to be pushed outward. This helps with the fact that the carbon monoxide that we so easially exhale gets stuck in her weak lungs. Without this all night mask-like oxygen tube the build up of carbon monoxide could be fatal. On top of all of this, she has terrible back problems where her back is curving two different and incorrect ways. This is causing her sternum to press against her already bad lungs leaving them with only about an inch to work.
To correct these issues and give Alexa a better chance in fighting it all, she needs to be put in a halo to help straighten her back, then, if it helps, she will undergo back surgery to correct the curvature. If the halo doesn't help, she may need a double lung transplant instead of the corrective back surgery. The lifespan of someone who gets a double lung transplant is only about 5 years of life after the surgery. SHe has alreay been evaluated for the lung transplant and is on the list incase her doctors feel there is no other way....
The stuff this child has to go through is huge. The fact that she is such a joyful and excited little girl is just so humbling. It was a great experience spending time with her and her family. Nick and I even got to work out at the local Y with her mom, Robin, after filming this morning. We woke up at 5:55am, filmed, took Alexa to school, worked out for an hour, packed, interviewed Robin, and headed back to SCAD Atlanta.
From there we captured some footage before connecting with Dominic again. He took us to the Varisty where we ate cold bad food (haha) and then we went and walked around Little Five Points. All is well. Atlanta has been quite interesting. I hear that WWE wrestling will be at the Masquerade tonight.
Too bad nobody else thinks that's cool...
We could be closer than you know,
Chelse
I am sitting in Dominic's dorm room at SCADATL listening to the bell
tower across the street playing America the Beautiful. I can hear the
bells ever so faintly from across the street above the sounds of
traffic and people walking and talking around the dorm building. How
pleasent it is to be able to open the door and just keep it open to
the warm September air. Not bad. Best of all, Nick is sitting right
infront of me capturing countless hours of video (61 hours and
counting to be exact) into our portable editing system. The footage
looks amazing and I seriously couldn't be more excited to tear into
it.
Yesterday, Nick and I got a call from Robin, Alexa's mom, at around
9am. When we listened to the message we found out that she thought it would be best if we just did all of our filming of Alexa in one giant swoop. This meant that we would have to be over at her house (about 40 minutes from where we were staying) by 4pm to be able to be there when her mom picks her up from girl scouts. We'd then stay over that night and sleep at their house in order to be able to capture one of Alexa's morning routines on film. We did all of this and got some very good coverage of the every-day life of Alexa. In doing so, we discovered how much some of these children really must go through as an after effect of their experimental cancer treatments.
Alexa and her sister Jenna helping cook dinner while we shoot video
In short, Alexa, because of the cancer treatments that saved her life, has lung disease and other lung issues that only allow for 11% lung capacity. She has to be hooked up to oxygen tubes ALL OF THE TIME, go through 2 treatments a day where she has to wear this vest that pumps a frequency of 12hz onto her chest, thumping her whole body in order to break up some of the build up in her lungs. She also has to take a plethra of pills and medicines as well as additional breathing treatments that shoot vapor into her lungs. When she sleeps at night she has to wear this tube that is a little larger than a roll of quarters underneath her nose that has openings that she pushes into her nostrles. It is triggered by her breathing and it pushes a little more air than she would normally be able to take in naturally into her lungs to allow more carbon dioxide to be pushed outward. This helps with the fact that the carbon monoxide that we so easially exhale gets stuck in her weak lungs. Without this all night mask-like oxygen tube the build up of carbon monoxide could be fatal. On top of all of this, she has terrible back problems where her back is curving two different and incorrect ways. This is causing her sternum to press against her already bad lungs leaving them with only about an inch to work.
To correct these issues and give Alexa a better chance in fighting it all, she needs to be put in a halo to help straighten her back, then, if it helps, she will undergo back surgery to correct the curvature. If the halo doesn't help, she may need a double lung transplant instead of the corrective back surgery. The lifespan of someone who gets a double lung transplant is only about 5 years of life after the surgery. SHe has alreay been evaluated for the lung transplant and is on the list incase her doctors feel there is no other way....
The stuff this child has to go through is huge. The fact that she is such a joyful and excited little girl is just so humbling. It was a great experience spending time with her and her family. Nick and I even got to work out at the local Y with her mom, Robin, after filming this morning. We woke up at 5:55am, filmed, took Alexa to school, worked out for an hour, packed, interviewed Robin, and headed back to SCAD Atlanta.
From there we captured some footage before connecting with Dominic again. He took us to
Too bad nobody else thinks that's cool...
We could be closer than you know,
Chelse
posted by Chelsea at 3:00 PM
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