Rare Illness hits one of our own

[NanciD]

(this was posted elsewhere on the net by *Big Lou* Labetti. I thought I'd pass it along to all of you folks as well)

Some of you may or may not know Doreen Seaman but this is her story and how

we can help.

Doreen started Drum Corps. at the age of 9 with the St. Ignatius all girl

Drum Corps. She played for 4 years and then in '83 she played for 1 year

with the Sound of Long Island. After that in '84 and '85 she marched with

the New Image Drum Corps. out of Long Island NY. She took a 2 year break and

then in '87. '88 and 89 she played with The Sunrisers. All of this time she

played the Soprano bugle. She also can play the guitar and the saxophone,

and played the saxophone for two seasons with the Freedom Flamingo band here

in Southeast Florida.

After the Sunrisers Doreen moved to Florida, where she pursed her college

education. She graduated from Florida International University with a Major

of Liberal Arts and a minor in Occupational therapy. She then went on to do

Graphic Arts and hot glassblowing for a while until she pursued and obtained

her real estate license.

In 2004 a new all alumni Drum Corps started in Tampa called the Florida

Brass Drum and Bugle Corps, and Doreen was a charter member and played lead

soprano bugle with them until she took ill.

Doreen has a very rare congenital birth anomaly called a right arched aorta.

Mostly all humans have a left arched aorta. This condition did not really

surface until about 1 year ago, and came to a head in November of 2005.

Basically she had a blood vessel passing in between her esophagus and

trachea. It was pulsing against her esophagus causing her dizziness and

shortness of breath.

She was starting to form an aneurysm in her arch when she was hospitalized

in November, but by the grace of God, it was caught and she was given blood

thinners to dissipate it.

She underwent 2 surgeries to correct the anomaly, and after the second

surgery had stroke like complications, even though I am told she did not

have a stroke. She spent 4 months in the hospital trying to fight to get

back home.

She made it on home on Friday May 26, 2006, but is still very ill and

requires assistance. Keeping the machinery she needs to use is going to be

very expensive. She has a compressor that runs a humidifier, a concentrator

for her oxygen, a nebulizer for her breathing treatments, a suction machine.

a feeding pump for her feeding tube along with the fact that she needs to be

tested for her sugars 4 times a day and have her trach and peg site cleaned

daily.

She has health insurance, but being an independent real estate agent, she

has no other income coming in and is relying on a friend for support. Your

support and prayers are appreciated in this hard time for her. She loves the

Drum Corps Family and credits them with keeping her life on track when she

was going through some rough times. She says that there were many times that

her Drum Corps marching mates would pick her up and house her for events so

she could participate in her passion of marching and playing. She still has

friends she keeps in touch with from the days of St. Ignatius.

If you could help Doreen and Sophie, please email Sophie at

SophieBBW@aol.com. You can also send Doreen emails to that address. She

would love to hear from you.

It's nice to be able to help people while they're still here for a change.

Please everyone, let's pull together and help her recovery.

Thanks so much.

[MuZiK11]

http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums//ind...showtopic=80201