Ladies and gentlemen, now announcing the amazing, the one and only,
Ella Basham.
I used to put on productions and I was always the star of the show.
She just loves to sing, loves being a performer.
Ella makes a lot of hard things look easy.
She'll hear a song one time and be able to sing it on her own.
The funny thing I think about growing up with severe asthma
is that you don't really realize that you can't breathe until you can.
When I have asthma attack
Ladies and gentlemen, now announcing the amazing, the one and only,
Ella Basham.
I used to put on productions and I was always the star of the show.
She just loves to sing, loves being a performer.
Ella makes a lot of hard things look easy.
She'll hear a song one time and be able to sing it on her own.
The funny thing I think about growing up with severe asthma
is that you don't really realize that you can't breathe until you can.
When I have asthma attacks, I get a ringing in my ears, my vision blurs,
I can't breathe at all.
Sometimes those asthma attacks took me out for like days.
I was diagnosed with pneumonia in January of 2020, got diagnosed again,
and to me it seemed like super strange to have pneumonia that many times.
We were at a friend's house, but I couldn't even say my name to new people
without getting out of breath.
I was like, hey, I've got to go to the hospital.
And I started having every CT scan, every MRI.
The doctor team in Illinois started to realize this could be eGPA.
They made it sound like one of the scariest things you could possibly have.
Once they told me it was eGPA, told me things that were going to happen,
being on high dosages of steroids,
one of the doctors had said, hey, you're going to gain a ton of weight
no matter what you do.
Chris went from being a active father and husband
to being a completely different person.
And it felt like he was just disappearing.
His skin was gray.
You could tell his breathing was labored.
I wondered if he was going to die.
I tried searching and ran into these videos by Michael Wexler
from National Jewish Health about eGPA.
I emailed him and he just said, I have a trial coming up.
I'll see if I can get him into it.
I couldn't believe it.
I called Chris the next day and I was like, you need to go to National Jewish Health.
I think Bruce Springsteen said it really, really well.
He said, imagine if you can write something
that in three minutes and 20 seconds will change somebody's life.
And I think that's the beauty of music.
About 2010, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
and given a very small chance of survival.
But I got a bone marrow transplant from my sister who saved my life.
And there was a lot of complications with that.
But the real complication came in about 2018
when I discovered the interstitial lung disease.
You fell in love, I was too soon.
I went in for just a standard physical.
Doctor said, OK, yeah, we'll do a lung x-ray.
And it came back and he said, do you have fibrosis tissue in your lungs?
He called it ground glass tissue.
And he said, I want you to go over to National Jewish and do a workup.
Chris's case is particularly difficult.
His lung disease is a form of progressive pulmonary fibrosis.
And it's likely a complication of the treatment for his leukemia.
And that treatment can injure the lungs.
There were no treatments to slow the progression for the most common form of pulmonary fibrosis.
And then two drugs were approved here at National Jewish Health.
In Chris's case, he's taking a medication that slows down the scar tissue deposition in his lung.
So that allows him to maintain his fitness and his current quality of life.
I'm walking four miles today.
There's a path that goes out on the north side of the suburbs.
My view is incredible.
And I guess it's a feeling that we are just passing through.
In Chris's case, participating in this trial really gave him a new opportunity to combat this disease, to get off of corticosteroids.
We're doing ground breaking research in pulmonary disease, and we're doing a lot of research in pulmonary disease.
In this study, we are comparing two different biologic therapies.
Our goal is to try to get people off of corticosteroids.
We started dropping steroids consistently for several months.
The longer I've been off the steroids, the better and better I felt.
I started losing weight and was able to play with the kids a little bit more without becoming winded.
I would say that he definitely is feeling more like himself.
We're making dinners again and spending more time together.
I went from two years of confusion dealing with what I was told was the top care team at the hospital in Illinois to coming to National Jewish Health
and being told we've dealt with this, we know how it works, we're going to guide you through it.
I was just doing a lot of searches for pediatric asthma allergy doctors, and National Jewish came up.
EL was referred to our pediatric severe asthma clinic, which is a multidisciplinary program that takes advantage of different specialists
EL was referred to our pediatric severe asthma clinic, which is a multidisciplinary program that takes advantage of different specialists
in order to meet the specific needs of the child.
After National Jewish had put me on these asthma shots, I was in a production of Mamma Mia at my high school, and I didn't reach for my inhaler at all.
Being invited to her performance was a privilege.
When Ella saw Dr. Kovar and Dr. Kovar saw Ella, it was a pretty emotional moment, Ella being surrounded by the National Jewish Health team.
I even have a hard time talking about it because it's just very meaningful.
It's one of the most rewarding experiences I've had as a provider here at National Jewish.
When I was diagnosed, I went to National Jewish Health, and there's a reason that you do that.
National Jewish Health is focused on the cutting edge of what is possible. They are the best in the country.
The second I got to National Jewish Health, because of the expertise, something that was extremely rare in every other circle of the world, was something that was very treatable.
National Jewish Health saved Chris's life.
I just can't thank National Jewish Health enough for shaping a treatment plan that lets her not just breathe better, but stand up on a stage and live her dream.
National Jewish matters because it's giving people another chance at life.
I feel very privileged to be part of National Jewish Health.
The science, the individualized care for our patients, the personalized approach, that's the vision of National Jewish, and we won't stop until we have solutions.
At National Jewish Health, we are committed to breathtaking discoveries and life-changing care.
For more information, visit www.nationaljewishhealth.org
s, I get a ringing in my ears, my vision blurs,
I can't breathe at all.
Sometimes those asthma attacks took me out for like days.
I was diagnosed with pneumonia in January of 2020, got diagnosed again,
and to me it seemed like super strange to have pneumonia that many times.
We were at a friend's house, but I couldn't even say my name to new people
without getting out of breath.
I was like, hey, I've got to go to the hospital.
And I started having every CT scan, every MRI.
The doctor team in Illinois started to realize this could be eGPA.
They made it sound like one of the scariest things you could possibly have.
Once they told me it was eGPA, told me things that were going to happen,
being on high dosages of steroids,
one of the doctors had said, hey, you're going to gain a ton of weight
no matter what you do.
Chris went from being a active father and husband
to being a completely different person.
And it felt like he was just disappearing.
His skin was gray.
You could tell his breathing was labored.
I wondered if he was going to die.
I tried searching and ran into these videos by Michael Wexler
from National Jewish Health about eGPA.
I emailed him and he just said, I have a trial coming up.
I'll see if I can get him into it.
I couldn't believe it.
I called Chris the next day and I was like, you need to go to National Jewish Health.
I think Bruce Springsteen said it really, really well.
He said, imagine if you can write something
that in three minutes and 20 seconds will change somebody's life.
And I think that's the beauty of music.
About 2010, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
and given a very small chance of survival.
But I got a bone marrow transplant from my sister who saved my life.
And there was a lot of complications with that.
But the real complication came in about 2018
when I discovered the interstitial lung disease.
You fell in love, I was too soon.
I went in for just a standard physical.
Doctor said, OK, yeah, we'll do a lung x-ray.
And it came back and he said, do you have fibrosis tissue in your lungs?
He called it ground glass tissue.
And he said, I want you to go over to National Jewish and do a workup.
Chris's case is particularly difficult.
His lung disease is a form of progressive pulmonary fibrosis.
And it's likely a complication of the treatment for his leukemia.
And that treatment can injure the lungs.
There were no treatments to slow the progression for the most common form of pulmonary fibrosis.
And then two drugs were approved here at National Jewish Health.
In Chris's case, he's taking a medication that slows down the scar tissue deposition in his lung.
So that allows him to maintain his fitness and his current quality of life.
I'm walking four miles today.
There's a path that goes out on the north side of the suburbs.
My view is incredible.
And I guess it's a feeling that we are just passing through.
In Chris's case, participating in this trial really gave him a new opportunity to combat this disease, to get off of corticosteroids.
We're doing ground breaking research in pulmonary disease, and we're doing a lot of research in pulmonary disease.
In this study, we are comparing two different biologic therapies.
Our goal is to try to get people off of corticosteroids.
We started dropping steroids consistently for several months.
The longer I've been off the steroids, the better and better I felt.
I started losing weight and was able to play with the kids a little bit more without becoming winded.
I would say that he definitely is feeling more like himself.
We're making dinners again and spending more time together.
I went from two years of confusion dealing with what I was told was the top care team at the hospital in Illinois to coming to National Jewish Health
and being told we've dealt with this, we know how it works, we're going to guide you through it.
I was just doing a lot of searches for pediatric asthma allergy doctors, and National Jewish came up.
EL was referred to our pediatric severe asthma clinic, which is a multidisciplinary program that takes advantage of different specialists
EL was referred to our pediatric severe asthma clinic, which is a multidisciplinary program that takes advantage of different specialists
in order to meet the specific needs of the child.
After National Jewish had put me on these asthma shots, I was in a production of Mamma Mia at my high school, and I didn't reach for my inhaler at all.
Being invited to her performance was a privilege.
When Ella saw Dr. Kovar and Dr. Kovar saw Ella, it was a pretty emotional moment, Ella being surrounded by the National Jewish Health team.
I even have a hard time talking about it because it's just very meaningful.
It's one of the most rewarding experiences I've had as a provider here at National Jewish.
When I was diagnosed, I went to National Jewish Health, and there's a reason that you do that.
National Jewish Health is focused on the cutting edge of what is possible. They are the best in the country.
The second I got to National Jewish Health, because of the expertise, something that was extremely rare in every other circle of the world, was something that was very treatable.
National Jewish Health saved Chris's life.
I just can't thank National Jewish Health enough for shaping a treatment plan that lets her not just breathe better, but stand up on a stage and live her dream.
National Jewish matters because it's giving people another chance at life.
I feel very privileged to be part of National Jewish Health.
The science, the individualized care for our patients, the personalized approach, that's the vision of National Jewish, and we won't stop until we have solutions.
At National Jewish Health, we are committed to breathtaking discoveries and life-changing care.
For more information, visit www.nationaljewishhealth.org
