What is Care Tv?

It is your one stop destination for news and views relating to the health care industry, financial markets, politics and all things tech and social media. We are a resource for job vacancies in this double digit unemployment shattered economy.

We are also an advocacy group for positive change by championing charities that we believe are doing a lot of good out there. Whether it be local New York based charities to international causes – we will do our best to keep credible charitable aims and ambitions in the spotlight.

My Politics: leans pretty much left of center.

But I retain a fiercely independent streak and will call out anyone on either side of the political fence when I smell hypocrisy.

Who is Care.TV?

James Barclay founder of Care.TV, and a socially conscious group of friends and volunteers who want to make a difference.

Why did I start Care.TV?

I will try and keep things as short as possible.

I am suffering from an auto immune disorder,Vasculitis, that affect the small blood vessels in my lungs and makes breathing without oxygen difficult and sometimes almost impossible.

Till age 33 I was fit and healthy as I could possibly be. I lived in Phoenix AZ, without a care in the world. I swam 60 lengths a day and climbed mountains on weekends.

And then things started to go wrong. I would climb the stairs and be out of breath.I had a lung biopsy in January of 2007 – which showed fibrosis of the lungs (scarring) but the root cause was undetermined. From January 07 through to November 2007, I was in denial that my problem was serious or that it was chronic and progressive.

That all changed in November 2007. I was admitted to ICU at New York Presbyterian with pneumonia, which I would come to find out is deadly when there is any underlying respiratory condition like Vasculitis. I was intubated, put into an induced coma and for four days the doctors battled round the clock to save my life. When my kidneys shut down too, they really thought there was no coming back.

But obviously it was not my time, and gradually I woke up to a mass of unbelieving doctors and family members. I wasn’t quite sure sure why I was getting all the attention!! But it took more than a few days for it to sink in what had happened to me.

Then in February of 2008, I had a lung hemorrhage – and was re-admitted to ICU. And yet again two weeks later. Each time I was given huge doses of antibiotics and steroids. It saved my life but caused me to balloon in weight.

From May of 2008 up until December 5th 2009 I went into remission (I had taken six months worth of low dose chemotherapy (cytoxan) which has been known to help some patients with my disorder. In fact for the last four months I was doing extremely well – walking 3 miles a day and swimming 12 laps a day too. I put  down the oxygen, only using it at night during sleeping hours.

But on December 5th 2009 I woke up knowing something was very wrong, my breathing was critically bad. This scared me intensely. I could always tell when things would get worse because it would happen over a 48 hour period, not in the space of 8 hours.

I was admitted once again to the ICU where the doctors believe that I had caught some type of respiratory disease (HIN1 or common flu etc ) and things looked real bad on the X-rays.
But they were equally amazed to see how quickly I recovered under a huge steroid and anti biotic measurement. In just three days, I was walking round the ICU faster than the doctors were and they released me on my fourth day.

During this stay at ICU, I made up my mind that if I were able to get through this, my life was going to change completely. I would start making a difference.

This brings us to today. I have accepted that any day can be my last and really have to make every day count.

I had blogged on and off for the last two years for personal satisfaction . But now, I am on a mission. I want to make a difference while I still can.

Because I care!!