Year: 2016

School is starting, temperatures are just starting to wind down in some places (not here!), and for many of you the anticipation of fall is creeping in. For some things start to calm down from the eventful summer, and for others the long lazy summer days are over as school kicks into gear. It may seem from the outside that we’ve been a little quite around here lately, but in fact it has been quite the opposite, and we have lots more to come! (Including, *gasp,* a giveaway! More info below)

So what exactly have we been up to? Well, one of the most exciting things that happened recently was the design and receipt of a new little card, pictured to the left. These cards have been in the works for a number of months now and we are super excited to finally have them. The front of these cards, as you can see, just gives a short and simple explanation of what our tubie clips are and how to use them. (If you don’t know what our tube clips are, we encourage you to check them out!) The back gives a quick explanation about how to open and close the clips in both the plastic and metal styles.

Wondering why something so small has us so excited? Well, if you recently ordered a tubie clip for the first time you might have already received one of these, and certainly part of their purpose is to help first time clip users fall in love as much as we have without any hiccups when it comes to things like figuring out how to open and close their clips. But their bigger purpose is actually to allow us to donate tubie clips, which is what we’ve been so excited about! You see, because our tubie clips are entirely unique to us, it’s a bit tougher to just hand them out and expect someone to know what it is and how to use it. Now, problem solved! And we’ve already put them to use in donations: we recently dropped off  two baskets of tubie clips and pads in the GI (gastroenterology)  and IR (interventional radiology) departments of Texas Children’s Hospital (our local pediatric hospital), as well as in two recent donation packages which you can see below!

Sent to Love Packages

Sent to Boxes of Hope and Joy

These are pictures of two different donation packages we were able to send off earlier this month and, for the first time, each contains 8 tubie clips as well as 15 tubie pads, 2 masks, and a tubie or central line bear. The first (left) package was sent out to a non profit called Love Packages run by a teen who sends out care packages to children and teens with life altering illnesses. The second (right) headed off to a little organization called Boxes of Hope and Joy that sends out care packages to kids ages 10-17 who have chronic illnesses. As always, these are awesome organizations and we encourage you to find out how you can get involved and help them out too! If you ever need help contacting them or want help finding more organizations to donate items to you can feel free to contact us and we will be more than happy to help you out.

Now that we’ve covered the highlights of this past month, we’re sure you’re dying to hear about the giveaway we hinted at earlier! Well today is not the day we announce the details, but we did want to give you a heads up because it will be EPIC and we don’t want you to miss out! So watch for a new post here tomorrow, September 1st that will contain all the info you need to enter. There will be multiple ways to enter here, on Facebook, and more so you might see some posts pop up elsewhere with directions to enter on those sites but the post here will contain all the info you need and the complete list of ways to enter. Also we do want to take a moment to point something out-you won’t need to have a feeding tube or any kind of medical device to enter! You’ll get more details tomorrow on the prize but we want to make that clear from the start so you don’t miss out just because you think you have to be a tubie to participate. Also, the giveaway will run the entire month of September, so no need to be left out if you have a crazy day tomorrow and, say, chase Pokeman until 1 am. 😉 Just kidding, but this is a stress-free super fun giveaway that you won’t want to miss!

Until tomorrow,

~Tickle Me Tubies

(Laura) I never used to quite understand why so many businesses had a “mission” or “purpose.” They didn’t always feel sincere, and I thought a business was a business, and that was that. But over the past months I have come to know I was so very wrong, and today I’d like to share with you a little about the passion and the purpose behind Tickle Me Tubies: Putting the ME in Medical.

Recently I woke up to this review and had tears in my eyes by the time I was done reading it, because this is why I do what I do. This is why Tickle Me Tubies began! And I want to express that to all of you.

Here’s what it says: “Absolutely life changing honestly! I have only been using it for a day and already my tube sight is much happier and has stopped bleeding. I guess I’m a bit clumsy with my tube. I always seem to be getting it caught on things or forgetting I’m hooked to it and walking away from the pump. Needless to say my tube sight was not happy. Even just wearing the pump all day puts a lot of gravity on the tube. But today every time I accidentally tugged it the force went straight to the clip instead. No problems! Love it! As you can see I am using it to hold the IV tubing too. Just genius!”

It was accompanied by this lovely comment on one of our Instagram posts: “I just got mine in the mail today and could cry! I can already tell this will be life changing. I’m a bit of a clumsy tubie.”

“Putting the ME in Medical”- our new mission statement. Yes, we have a mission statement, because this is more than just a business. This is a passion. A love. And it has a purpose. Everything we do is all about taking back the medical. It’s about giving you the power to say, “This doesn’t have to be this way! I can make it better!” And giving you the opportunity to take back the things you have lost to the medical world. It’s about you taking back your life by making this world a little more you and bringing comfort to the often uncomfortable.

However unusual and small it may seem, I truly believe a tubie pad, or clip, or mask, or anything else can be life changing. Because suddenly, you get to choose. You get to choose comfort, and you get to choose character. You get to make something a little less medical and a little more you. And this is why I put so much emphasis on donating items-because I want everyone to have this chance. Because, however small, it makes a difference.

So today, we’re giving you back the power. In a life and world where so much seems out of control and foreign, we want to give you back the power to truly put your ME in medical.

Well it’s that time of the year again! The days are getting longer, and the hotter it gets the more a lot of us feel like sleeping off those summer days. Or maybe you’re like us and get that extra boost of motivation to stay busy! Either way, we’ve got some insider news, coupons, and more to share with you. And yes, that’s right, we did say insider-anyone following our blog posts got an email when this one went out. Why is that important? This post contains our July 4th coupons-and they got posted here a day earlier than anywhere else! Which means following our blog gives you first pick when it comes to items that go especially fast when we are having a sale. So let’s get down to it!

We know all this talk about coupons has you excited, but first we’d like to take just a minute to catch you up on what’s been going on around here. We recently got an Instagram account in addition to our Facebook page and Pinterest accounts, but it’s a little unique for us: it gives a fun behind-the scenes type look at what happens before our products get to you! You can find us by clicking the link at the bottom of every page or look us up @tickle_me_tubies.

During the month of June, we were able to send out not one, but two donation packages! We pulled together some items for two wonderful organizations and we’d like to give them the spotlight for just a minute.

First up was this lovely bundle we sent off to Sunshine Packages! We sent off 20 tubie pads, 3 child sized masks, 3 adult sized masks, and a teddy bear that we added a port (type of central line) and an NG/NJ tube.

In case you don’t know who they are, Sunshine Packages is a small organization run by a teen girl who sends out care packages, boxes of sunshine, to children and teens facing life threatening illnesses requiring frequent medical treatment. They run purely on donations so they are always in need! They accept donations of toys and other items to include in the packages as well as monetary donations to cover the cost of shipping each package. To learn more about them, donate, apply for a package, or just leave an encouraging note, you can find them on Instagram @sunshinepackages and visit their website: sunshinepackages.yolasite.com.

Our second donation package this month went out to the Bohring-Opitz Syndrome (or BOS) Foundation. The BOS Foundation works to raise awareness and promote research for BOS, as well as providing support for individuals with BOS and their families. BOS is an extremely rare genetic condition. It can cause many symptoms, including feeding and GI issues which put many on feeding tubes.

We were very excited to get to send off 35 tubie pads as well as a NG/NJ tubie bear and a G tubie bear for them to distribute to patients currently dealing with BOS.

There has certainly been a lot of excitement around here! We have our first masks available with colored elastic ear loops and have made quite a few new tubie clips available for purchase. But the excitement doesn’t end here! In honor of July 4th weekend coming up we have two coupons now available! Please note the limit is one coupon per purchase. Both coupons start today, June 30th, and expire at 11:59 pm CST on July 6th, 2016. So here they are: you can use coupon code 4JULY16 and receive 10% any purchase of $8 or more (not including shipping), or code JULY4TH to receive $4 off any purchase of $30 or more (before shipping).

Enjoy & happy shopping!

~Tickle Me Tubies