Celebrating 5 Years of SuperCaptainBraveMan

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Hello, SuperCaptainBraveFAM!

It’s Nurse Leah!

April was a very busy month for us. The final adults in our team got vaccinated, some of our kids went back to in-person learning, and last but not least, we celebrated Kyle’s 15th birthday!

If you follow us on YouTube, you might have seen the interview series I did with Jennifer Norman, Paul Norman, and Victor Lodevico to commemorate SuperCaptainBraveMan’s 5th year anniversary.

If you haven’t seen them, scroll down and watch them now! There are also links to transcripts of the interviews, if you read faster than we talk.

Nurse Leah sits down for a chat with SuperCaptainBraveMan co-creator, Paul Norman

Talking about inspiration, drawings, and quizzes with illustrator, Victor Lodevico.

Catching up with SuperCaptainBraveMan co-creator, Jennifer Norman.

World 1-1: How We Breathe

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Hello, SuperCaptainBraveFAM!

I’m Nurse Leah and I’d like to talk about breathing. Why do we do it? Why do we need it? How does it all work?

The answer to the first two questions is simple: we breathe in to get fresh oxygen into our bodies and we breathe out to get rid of carbon dioxide and other waste gases.

Oxygen is an essential part of the process our body’s cells use to create energy in the most efficient way. A byproduct (or result) of that is carbon dioxide (CO2)—which is dangerous to keep in our bodies and that’s why we need to breathe it out. The process of using oxygen to make energy in our cells is called aerobic respiration.

There’s a way for our cells to get energy without oxygen, but it actually takes more effort and the byproducts of that process can be more harmful to your muscles. That process is called anaerobic respiration.

So, oxygen is really, really important for our bodies to work at its absolute best.

And the place where our body exchanges carbon dioxide for fresh oxygen is right there in our lungs!

That brings us to the third question I started with: How does it all work?

The parts of the body responsible for breathing are collectively called the Respiratory system. That’s because it’s a system of organs and parts of your body that work together to get some of the materials needed for aerobic respiration.

David, from A Kyle Adventure Book 2: Signs of the Season

So, let me introduce you to the parts of the Respiratory system, starting at your head with the nose and mouth.

When we breathe, air usually comes in through our nose or mouth. The truth is that the passages that make up the inside of your nose and mouth are connected. That’s why liquid comes out of your nose if you laugh too hard while drinking.

Have you ever gone out when it was especially cold and every time you breathed, it hurt your chest a little? Or has it ever been so hot and dry that you can practically taste the heat?

It’s because the difference in air temperature from your own body temperature contrasted a bit too much. Your body likes everything inside to stay pretty much the same temperature and works hard to maintain that. The inside of your body also likes to stay moist and doesn’t like to dry out too much—think of the inside of your mouth—and so one job of the mouth and nose is to warm and moisten the air entering your body.

Another job is that they keep particles that don’t belong in the body out. Things like dust and pollen get stuck in our nose hairs and sneezed out. Or the back of your mouth catches the bigger particles and you can cough them out.

Just a quick reminder to please cover your nose & mouth when coughing & sneezing, use tissues to wipe your face, and wash your hands afterward. Doing these things can help keep yourself clean and prevent the spread of diseases that take advantage of how our Respiratory systems work.

After our nose and mouth, the next part of the Respiratory system is the trachea.

The trachea is tube that runs alongside and in front of your esophagus. The esophagus is a soft, flexible tube that food travels down to get to the stomach. The trachea is more rigid and keeps its shape a lot more easily to allow airflow to travel properly.

The easy travel of airflow is why another name for the trachea is “The Windpipe.”

The trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and the lungs.

The trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and the lungs.

As it goes down into your chest, the trachea branches off into two bronchi—which are smaller tubes—and from there bronchioles—which are the smallest airway tubes of all.

At the end of the bronchioles are small clusters that look like tiny, tiny balloons. These clusters are called alveoli and this is where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide take place.

The alveoli are covered with the smallest blood vessels in the body and the red blood cells in the vessels are the ones that trade the carbon dioxide they hold for new oxygen. They then take that oxygen to the rest of the body.

But more than the lungs—and all they hold—are needed to take a breath.

This is where muscles like your diaphragm and those in your rib cage come in to play.

The diaphragm is a muscle that sits right below the lungs and is the major muscle used in breathing. This boss muscle is dome shaped and when it contracts, it flattens. This makes the space inside your chest bigger and causes the lungs to inflate and expand.

The muscles in your rib cage—right in between your rib bones—also help expand your chest whenever you inhale.

When the space inside your chest gets bigger, air is sucked into your lungs and the alveoli fill with fresh oxygen. That is what happens when you inhale.

When the diaphragm and rib cage relax, the space inside your chest returns to it’s resting size. The air you just breathed in is released through your nose and mouth. That is what happens in your body when you exhale.

Breathing helps everyone race around and have fun!

And the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide happens in millions of tiny alveoli during that short time between inhaling and exhaling.

Our bodies automatically know how to take a breath. People like singers, dancers, actors, and athletes all learn how to control their breathing and use their respiratory muscles to improve their performances. It’s really amazing how our bodies take so many separate parts and use them together to do something like breathing!

If you want to get a simplified visual of how your body breathes, then here’s an experiment that adults and kids can do to make your own “mini lung”!

Make your own model lung at home!

Disclaimer: This experiment is relatively well-known and available online through multiple sources. Always be sure to be careful and have an adult handle the scissors. Safety is always important!

How to Make a Model Lung

Materials Needed

  • A plastic bottle

  • A straw (we used a wide, reusable boba straw)

  • 2 balloons (regular party balloons)

  • An elastic band or tape

  • Play dough or something to seal the bottle top (we used half of a balloon and tape)

  • A marker

  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Mark the bottle halfway down and have an adult use the scissors to carefully cut the bottle at the mark. You can use the bottom half as a planter or decorate it to hold pencils. We’ll be using the top half for the experiment.

  2. Get one balloon and tie a knot at the opening. Use the scissors to cut the top off of the balloon.

  3. Take the top half of the bottle and stretch the tied-off balloon around the bottom of the bottle. Tape in place, if needed.

  4. Put the straw in the other balloon and secure in place with an elastic band or tape. Be careful not to crush the straw! Air needs to travel through it. You can blow gently through the straw to check if the balloon inflates to be sure.

  5. Put the straw and balloon into the neck of the bottle so that the balloon is inside the bottle near the center.

  6. Now, you have to make an airtight seal at the top of the bottle. There are two ways I know how to do this depending on what materials you have:

    1. You can use play dough to secure the straw at the top of the bottle where the cap usually goes. Make sure the straw isn’t crushed and that no air can escape through the play dough.

    2. Take the other balloon piece and have an adult cut a small hole in the center. Slide the top of the straw through the hole and bring the balloon piece down to the bottle opening. Secure the straw to the balloon with tape. Tape the balloon edges to the bottle, or you can use an elastic band to seal the balloon at the bottle opening.

Presto! You’ve made your own mini-lung!

You’ve probably figured out how the different materials make up the different parts of the respiratory system, right?

  • The bottle = your chest and rib cage

  • The straw = your windpipe

  • The balloon inside the bottle = your lungs

  • The balloon at the bottom of the bottle = your diaphragm

But how do you see it in action?

If your lungs inflate because your diaphragm makes the space inside your chest bigger…

What happens when you pull down on the balloon at the bottom?

Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time. Just re-check for any holes or leaks in the tape or play dough to make sure everything is sealed and there are no leaks.

In fact, problems like small holes or leaks in our respiratory system can keep our own lungs from inflating properly. And it’s things like that that doctors and healthcare professionals look out for when treating patients who are having trouble breathing.

Knowing how our bodies work is important for us to know how to take care of ourselves. And especially important so we know how best to help those who might need it.

The human body is intriguing and amazing to learn about. There’s always more to learn and share.

Join us next week for another installment of…

The Science Saga of SuperCaptainBraveMan!

Until then, stay safe and stay brave!

Join our mailing list and don’t forget to like & follow SuperCaptainBraveMan on social media to hear all about it!

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Going on a Disney Cruise (Part 1)

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Hello, SuperCaptainBraveFAM!

Disclaimer: Please be aware that the information below is based on our own experience and, to our knowledge, correct as of January 2020. Procedures and amenities may change when cruise lines relaunch.

It’s Nurse Leah here on another Monday. Last week, I talked about how—before the pandemic—we used to go on short day trips with Kyle. (If you haven’t read it, you can click here to do so!) It’s a list of “must haves” for traveling with Kyle. Over the years, he’s also gone on overnight and multi-day trips to the Disneyland Resort, San Diego, Hawaii, New York, and Baltimore. The trip I’m about to share with you is our most ambitious to date.

In May of 2019, Kyle spent three days at sea aboard the Disney Wonder cruise ship.

When the idea of taking a short, three-day cruise down the California & Mexican coast came up, you can bet that Team Kyle had to put our collective heads together to find out if it was even possible. Jennifer Norman, Kyle’s mom, spoke to his team of doctors to ask if traveling was advisable for him. Once we got word that as long as reasonable precautions were taken, Kyle could go on the trip, Team Kyle started researching the process of taking a person with adaptive needs onto a cruise ship.

Travel agents are a great resource and avenue to use when you can. Lots of times they have exclusive deals and information for families looking to enjoy every second of their vacation.

Team Kyle wanted that too. But we wanted to research everything ourselves and sometimes questions that come to mind when talking directly to the source don’t occur to you when talking to a liaison like a travel agent.

We looked into every aspect of the cruise. From scouring travel blogs and YouTube reviews of the wheelchair accessible staterooms; to contacting the Disney Cruise Line directly and asking questions that catered to Kyle’s specific needs, we poured months of research into ensuring that if we went on this trip, Kyle would be as safe as possible.

We were in uncharted waters and looked for information where ever we could find it.

Since the cruise would take us down to Ensenada, Mexico, the first order of business was getting Kyle a US Passport. Well, passports for all the kids coming on the trip. When I say that Team Kyle was going on this cruise, not only did I mean Kyle and his family. The nurses dedicated to Kyle’s care and their kids were invited, too.

It was a celebration, after all. In 2019, Kyle turned 13. After all of the hard work, setbacks, and triumphs, our Bootie-boy was now a teenager.

The Disney Cruise Line has a section on their website dedicated to answering the questions of guests with disabilities and what accommodations are available for them and their needs. This was way back in 2019 and the information might be different when the cruise line relaunches. The site only answered so many questions, Jenn and I spent quite a while on the phone with a Disney Cruise Line cast member to get clarification on several key areas.

Their Request for Special Services form covers requests that include:

  • plans to bring specific medical equipment

  • a request for distilled water (which we absolutely need for Kyle and was provided every day by the cruise line)

  • a need for electrical power and supplies deliveries

  • the need for a wheelchair accessible room

  • wheelchair accessible ground transportation when available

  • trained service animal notification (Permits are required for every country and port you’ll be sailing to and can take weeks or months to complete, so be aware of that. Also, the animal needs to be trained with the proper documentation for their roles.)

  • plans to travel with an oxygen concentrator and other oxygen related needs

  • requests for guests who have hearing disabilities like stateroom smoke detectors with strobe lights, and an American Sign Language interpreter for select shipboard shows & entertainment.

  • requests for guests with visual disabilities like audio descriptive devices and enlarged print formats for dinner menus.

  • severe food allergies like the ones Nurse Victor and my daughter, Remy have

As mentioned in The Adventures of SuperCaptainBraveMan books and on this blog, Kyle is oxygen and ventilator dependent. The process of having oxygen tanks on board the cruise ship was both straightforward and complicated.

Straightforward because the forms needed were easy to access and fill out.

Complicated because…well…they were forms and red tape is red tape.

We were informed that we sadly could not bring our own oxygen tanks. But they provided us the contact of a third-party distributor that had a contract with our port of departure. We secured the correct forms and received confirmation that the requested oxygen tanks would be delivered to the dock and placed in our stateroom.

Along with the oxygen tanks, we wanted assurance that the equipment we needed to bring could charge safely. Without going into specifics, there are at least 5 pieces of equipment that need to be charged nightly for Kyle’s care. All staterooms have outlets, but none have power strips.

And you can’t bring your own from home due to cruise line regulations.

But what you can do is request an extension cord from Guest Services the moment you board the ship. Unfortunately, when we went, you couldn’t reserve one beforehand. Paul Norman, Kyle’s dad, was unanimously volunteered to be the one to brave Guest Services when the time came.

Every stateroom has a mini-fridge and bathroom with sink. So, Kyle’s medications and feeding supplies had a place to chill—ha ha—and get cleaned every day.

The Disney Cruise Line website has floor plans and pictures of the wheelchair accessible staterooms. But pictures can only tell us so much. That’s where Nurse Victor came in with his obsession for travel vlogs and did some research.

YouTube became a great tool for use to see the accessible staterooms from a guest's perspective and one of the most informative videos that we watched over and again was the Disney Wonder Handicapped Accessible Stateroom 7138 Tour by RaeTravels.

And by coincidence, Kyle’s stateroom number on the Disney Wonder was 7636—on the other end, but the same floor as the room in the video. More video travel vlogs and online ship diagrams prepared us for the general feel of where and how Kyle could navigate the ship.

My favorite thing...was how incredibly accommodating the Disney Wonder staff was in regards to what it means to travel with a person with special needs. There wasn't a moment I felt: "Kyle can't do this."

Nurse Victor

The practical components taken care of, Team Kyle could focus on the traditional aspects of going on a cruise and a Disney cruise in particular. One of the best parts of going on a Disney cruise is the themed nights and the dining experiences.

This cruise in particular had a Pirate’s Night scheduled on the itinerary. And if you need to know anything about Team Kyle, you need to know that we love to dress up. We also like to surprise and prank each other, so we kept our individual pirate get ups a secret.

Originally, we were assigned the second dining group seating—where dinner service started at 8 pm. Having 13-, 9-, and 8-year-old kids in our group meant that an earlier dining option was preferable. We put in a request for the main dining group—where service started at 5:45 pm. The day we left port we were told that our request was granted and our first dinner would be at the restaurant, Triton’s.

One tidbit that we stumbled on when researching for Kyle was the fact that many people decorate their stateroom doors with magnets. Cell service is spotty even with the onboard app available to the people in your party. A lot of guests have whiteboards with dry erase markers on their doors so they can leave notes for their family.

When I saw how amazing these decorations were, I knew that we had to create something special for Team Kyle. Nurse Victor did an amazing job drawing everyone in “vacation mode” and I did what I could with MS Paint and printed out some Mickey head decorations and stuck them on magnet sheets I got online.

Some guests even take part in a small gift exchange. But with everything else going on, we couldn’t contribute to the idea. Next time, we definitely will.

So, we had costumes and we had decorations.

What comes next…? It was a Disney cruise. What came next was autograph books, new swimsuits, and lots of packing and repacking!

Join us next week where I get into the actual story of our trip and not just the practicalities of planning our possibly perilous passage into the unknown…otherwise known as a Family Vacation.

Check out the vlog we made outlining today's info (with extra pictures and video) below!

Stay safe and stay brave, SuperCaptainBraveFAM! Sea you all later!

Join our mailing list and don’t forget to like & follow SuperCaptainBraveMan on social media to hear all about it!

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