Category — Acupuncture

This year, I published two posts related to Mother’s Day and infertility (A Non Mother’s Day and Mother’s Day Mourning).

It is important to remember that Father’s Day can be a challenging and painful day as well. Men affected by infertility hurt too!

This RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association article may be helpful:

Coping With Mother’s Day and Father’s Day

Infertility affects couples in many different ways. It can be a crushing, devastating, consuming experience. Our society as a whole tends not to comprehend the degree of suffering involved. Many suffer in silence. Someone you know may be struggling with infertility (whether you are aware of it or not).

Often, people make comments to infertile patients that hurt long afterwards. Our society needs to do a better job supporting infertile couples. Typically, the media’s portrayal of infertility is not a very accurate depiction.

My thoughts heading into the upcoming weekend are with all of the men and women who are unable to become parents. (I decided not to wait on posting this because my blog has already had visitors to the post I wrote last year for Father’s Day. So, I thought it best to get something posted now… as some are already transitioning into activities such as traveling to see relatives, etc). In addition to keeping infertile couples in my thoughts, I’m thinking of those who have suffered pregnancy loss. (In some cases, couples fall into both categories).

Finally, Father’s Day can also be difficult for people unaffected by infertility. For example, it can be a difficult day for those who have lost their fathers or for parents who have lost their children.

Please keep those who are grieving or processing loss in your thoughts. Thank you.

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

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Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

On June 1, 2008 I set off on an adventure. I had no idea where it would lead. That was exactly two years ago today. It has been a labor of love to be sure and I am extremely grateful for the opportunities and joy it has brought. It has been a wonderful journey and learning experience. I have met some of the kindest, funniest, sweetest, most compassionate people from around the world the past two years!

On that day, I began writing a blog called Jeanne’s Endo Blog. It was never really a blog about just endometriosis at all.

However, when I started writing a blog I knew endometriosis would be one of the illnesses on which I would focus my writing. After all, my journey with chronic conditions began 28 years ago with endometriosis. I was then just thirteen years old when my symptoms started in 1982. Ten years after that, I had a laparoscopic surgery that finally gave me a name for the illness that had turned my life upside down at age 13: endometriosis. It has been said that the average diagnosis of endometriosis occurs 9.9 years after the onset of symptoms. So, the time lag for my diagnosis was a textbook case. This type of delay is absolutely unacceptable. (There are many previous posts about why such a delay occurs – in the 373 posts that preceded this. I encourage readers to check my blog’s archives and/or search box in the right sidebar to locate such posts).

Regular readers here know that I have by no means confined my writing to endometriosis. At the same time, my passion for the endometriosis cause has made it a focal point amongst the posts about other illnesses and causes.

My husband commented a few days ago that my keyboard (new as of about a year ago) has been used so much that many of the letters no longer have their markings. That’s right. I have worn the letters off my keyboard. It has been a busy two years!

As the years have gone on since I became chronically ill in 1982, quite an array of additional illnesses have been added to my list of diagnoses. This link mentions a few of them. I have so much that I wish to say about each of my chronic conditions that I often have an internal struggle regarding how to spend my time and focus my energy.

So many of these conditions need more awareness! So many are poorly understood and under-researched/under-funded. So many involve patients whose experiences are not validated by our society or even their own loved ones (especially true for the “invisible illnesses”). Many patients are accused of exaggerating or of having “psychosomatic” illnesses. I struggle with how to give fair time to each of these illnesses. Which way should I turn? Which illness is facing the most pressing issues? Which illness is having an awareness day/week/month? How can I best help the causes that are dear to me? What is the most efficient use of my time?

Where should I go next when there is so much to do?

The reality is that I can’t do justice to all of the topics that I wish I could write about as frequently as I would like to write about them. I try to but the risk of burnout or escalating symptoms forces me to prioritize as best I can and try to pace myself. Sometimes I am better at this than others. Sometimes I don’t practice what I preach about the importance of self-care. To attempt to do justice to every issue I’m passionate about with my writing tends to throw the self-care I preach out the window. The reality is that I need to practice what I preach and take care of myself so I don’t get sicker and/or burned out from pushing myself too hard. This is probably the most challenging part of blogging for me. If I wrote 24/7, I could never do justice to each illness the way I’d like to in a perfect world. There are just 24 hours in a day. I have some serious health problems that place limitations on me. I may not like it but it’s the reality. Even if I were healthy, what I wish I could write about is beyond what one person can do. I have been trying my best to make peace with this fact.

In addition to writing about illnesses I have, I also advocate for causes I believe in (such as illnesses that do not affect me firsthand but do impact large numbers of my friends – online and off). Also, I spend an enormous about of time in “off the blog” conversations with fellow patients: giving/receiving support, sharing resources and information, working as a team to research issues we care about, etc.

When I converted my blog from Jeanne’s Endo Blog to Chronic Healing, I wanted a blog name that captured my desire to keep writing about many chronic conditions. I wanted the name to expand beyond endometriosis alone. Finally, I wanted it to be positive and reflect healing.

In the course of a conversation with Cassie Germsheid (who re-designed my blog and migrated my data from Blogger to WordPress) about what to name this blog, I decided on the name Chronic Healing. With Cassie’s outstanding help and a great deal of hard work, I was able to realize my goal of launching Chronic Healing on June 1, 2009… the one year anniversary of when I began blogging initially. There was an enormous amount of data migrated. Cassie helped me make Chronic Healing what it is today.

Now, here we are a year later. I cannot express how much I have learned, how touched I have been by the kindness and compassion of so many people that I have had the privilege to “meet” online, how many intense/strong connections I have made with fellow patients around the world, how much support and information I have received, etc. My only hope is that I have been able to touch the lives of those I have met on this awesome journey even a fraction of how much they have touched me. It has been an honor and a joy to interact with so many people who practice compassion and loving kindness each day.

The LOVE expressed to me by my online friends warms my heart and amazes me every day. It truly is amazing and heartwarming. The acts of compassion I have witnessed these last two years are beyond anything I could have imagined.

It would be impossible for me to thank everyone publicly but please accept this post as my blanket thank you to everyone. If you are reading this, the thank you applies to you!

Moving on, there is exciting news ahead that is related to a venture that my friend Amanda recently embarked on. Like me, Amanda has endometriosis. She has a new site that is up and running now and you can check it out by clicking below. I encourage you to do so!

Amanda’s Patch

So what is the exciting news? Well, I had contemplated last week whether to do something to celebrate this two year anniversary but had not decided upon anything. It was just a fleeting thought and I hadn’t decided whether I would or would not have some sort of blog giveaway. The very next day, my dear friend Amanda contacted me volunteering to donate something very special for a blog giveaway.

She had absolutely no idea of my blog’s anniversary date and was simply offering to donate a handmade item because, frankly, it is in her nature to do thoughtful, caring, supportive things like that.

I was very pleased with the timing of Amanda’s generous offer to donate an item for a blog giveaway. For it to be a handmade, beautiful giveaway item from someone I respect so much and for it to unfold at the perfect time for an anniversary giveaway is just wonderful.

It gets even better… The handmade item she is donating for a blog giveaway for this very post fits perfectly with the healing theme of this blog! You see, Amanda uses healing crystals in her handmade jewelry. What a perfect way to honor healing… the very theme of this blog.

Before I share a description of the item or the photograph of the prize that someone reading this will win, I would like to urge readers to check out Amanda’s new online shop. She recently launched her own business and I am beyond thrilled for her! Click below to check out her site:

Please note that the above link will take you to two places (her online shop and her blog). On the Amanda’s Patch blog, she has a section that talks about endometriosis. As Amanda puts it on her blog’s endometriosis section, here is why she included some information about endometriosis on the blog:

“You see, my endometriosis was a massive part of the decision to start Amanda’s Patch and so it had to be involved somewhere”.

I love the way Amanda increases endometriosis awareness through her new business and lets those visiting her shop’s blog know why the endometriosis cause is important to her! She is integrating her personal experience into her new venture in such a wonderful way that can educate people about endometriosis. (Among Amanda’s past blogs is “Me and You at 22″, which many regular readers here will recognize).

Well, I have reminisced enough. I do believe it’s time to get on to the details about the blog giveaway!

Here is a photograph of the beautiful necklace handmade by Amanda:

Prize description of necklace:

Amanda says, “the necklace is made from amethyst and aventurine beads crocheted onto silver-plated copper wire and has a lily-shaped toggle clasp. Amethyst and aventurine are both part of the quartz family, which means they complement each other beautifully and will go with pretty much any other crystals the winner may wear”. Amanda adds that as far as energy is concerned, “all crystals have energy properties”. She also notes that, “all types of quartz have different properties but the family are, quite simply, great for healing negative energies!”

Amanda notes: “amethyst works with the ‘higher’ chakras, particularly the third eye and crown chakras which will help on a physical level for the head and sinus areas as well as spiritually by helping to clear the thoughts and emotionally by helping to clear the blocked emotions” and that “aventurine works on the heart chakra, helping to ease heartache, particularly caused by factors out of our control. Green is a particularly healing color (colors are so important). It helps ground us, find the best in our environments (think of connections with nature) and is great for emotional pain”.

Finally, here is some random trivia about crystals. Amanda tells me that work is being done on using crystals as massive data storage devices. I did a search online and I found a link about this topic here:

Tiny Crystals Could Hold Key To Massive Computer Memory

Interesting, huh?

As with past blog giveaways, the winner will be chosen randomly based on comment number and you may leave as many comments as you wish. (Obviously, multiple comments increase your odds of winning this beautiful crystal necklace). Amanda has generously offered to ship the prize to the winner regardless of their location. So, this contest has no geographical requirements. If you’re interested in a chance to win this lovely necklace, be sure to leave a comment! I’ll pick a winner in a few days. I haven’t decided when I’ll be picking the winner. So, get your comments in now to enter.

Thank you!

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

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Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

Powerful. Inspirational. Moving. Enlightening. Wow.

Watch:

Aimee Mullins

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

Recently, I published a post regarding a 13 year old with suspected endometriosis. There was a warm outpouring of support from readers to her. Since it is Endometriosis Awareness Month and since so very many endometriosis patients’ symptoms start at young ages, I thought it would be well worth republishing the post and the many thoughtful, detailed, supportive comments that readers posted to the teen in the following post.

Please be sure to read the comments. Even if you saw the post when it was originally published, you may not have seen all of the follow-up comments that followed.

Post on teen with suspected endometriosis:

Article on teen with suspected endometriosis and the numerous thoughtful comments posted to it by readers

It is wonderful to see an outpouring of support in a situation like this. Together, chronic illness patients (regardless of their specific diagnosis) can band together and support each other. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their supportive and thoughtful words with this 13 year old who is in so much pain.

There is hope and there is support. There are many people who care. You are not alone.

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

This weekend I had one of my regular acupuncture sessions. Acupuncture has helped me so much with so many different illnesses. It’s hard to capture in words how much it has helped me.

I JUST LOVE ACUPUNCTURE!!

Japanese style acupuncture needles that are used by my acupuncturist (with a penny for size perspective)

If you missed my previous posts on acupuncture, here are a couple of links (including one to a video where I talked about acupuncture). I hope you’ll find them helpful!

See prior posts: HERE, HERE, and HERE.

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

This post is a partial reprint of an article I read on The Canary Report.

While the full post there was more detailed and got into specifics involving claims made by companies targeting multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) patients, for the purposes of this post I have decided to focus on the ten warning signs of a scam, as compiled by Lourdes Salvador and Linda Sepp, and as previously published HERE.

This list, in my opinion, is applicable to nearly any chronic illness patient because the tips for spotting scams listed here are so universally used. This fantastic list is far more concise than I could have written. Yet it captured something I have been wanting to blog about for some time. Longtime readers know that I have blogged about scams and false cures before. However, this list nicely sums up what you, as a chronically ill patient, can be on the lookout for.

Reprinted with permission from:

Lourdes Salvador of MCS America
AND
Linda Sepp, a contributor for The Canary Report

Ten Warning Signs of a Scam:

1. The Promise Of A Quick And Easy Cure

2. Presence Unproven Patient Testimonials & Emotional Appeals Instead Of Science

3. Claims To Cure Many Ailments Which Have No Cure In Medical Science

4. It’s Not Sold In Stores

5. It Has Undisclosed Ingredients Or Content

6. You Have To Keep At It To Get Results

7. It Doesn’t Work Because You Did It Wrong

8. Science Hasn’t Even Bothered To Discredit It (No Threat To Pharmaceutical Sales)

9. The Seller Lacks A Medical Degree Or Similar Qualification

10. It’s Too Good To Be True

Copyrighted © 2009 MCS America

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I am very grateful to Susie Collins for posting about this topic and to Linda Sepp and Lourdes Salvador for writing about this very important topic!

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

I should have posted about Tori sooner. Longtime readers know it is very overdue. Today is the day. Let the healing begin.

Video clip – a song that helps me when I’m hurting:

The last few weeks have been challenging. My body is smart enough to know this. My body remembers things and sometimes seems to “store them up” and then spring them on me. Today was one of those days when it was truly a struggle to get out of bed. I am not talking about not feeling like getting out of bed or being too tired to do so. No, I am talking about waking up and wondering to myself, “HOW am I going to get out of bed?” My husband left for work before I got up because he knew I needed the sleep and that I didn’t have any doctor’s appointments today. So there wasn’t anyone home to physically get me out of bed and I started the day wondering how I was going to do it without help.

My muscles hurt. My skin hurts. I hurt everywhere from head to toe. My teeth hurt (some of which is cavity-related – but not all – because this still happens when I’m cavity-free). My hair even hurts. I feel like I got hit by a truck, then a train, and then a bus. Every molecule of my body hurts. Every cell. I am sore. None of this is new to me. I’ve hurt this much before. I am just incredibly frustrated because I have so much I want to do and have to do but I am so sore that I am barely functional right now.

Rather than focus on the pain (a trap into which I could easily fall on a day like today), I am going to practice what I preach and fall back on self-care and coping mechanisms.

I have decided to have an Almost Rosey day.

One coping mechanism is gratitude. I am thankful that the acupuncture I had the other day has definitely lessened the nerve pain in my “surgery that didn’t go as expected back in January 2008″ leg. The pain was out of control because I had missed two acupuncture appointments… resulting in the longest gap between appointments that I’ve ever had. I am thankful that the bladder instillation has calmed down my interstitial cystitis, which really got flaring badly a few days ago. I am thankful to have a roof over my head and that it is nice and warm in here.

Next, I am going to find some Tori Amos music. As longtime readers will recall, Tori’s music helps me at the toughest times, helps me cope with pain, and calms me down when I’m agitated. Her seasonal album was released recently and it’s just beautiful. So, I’ll be putting that on in just a minute.

As far as self-care, I got enough sleep last night (despite horrible insomnia that kept me up too late). My next focus is on making myself eat whether I feel like it or not. Who knows? I might even fit in some meditation time.

All I know is the pain I’m in right now is the kind that makes it hard to think straight, makes everything a massive effort, and makes me appreciate the times when simple functioning isn’t such a struggle.

I posted the preceding video (which I have posted previously) because I needed some “Almost Rosey” today. Now, I’m off to pop in my new Tori CD (Midwinter Graces, a beautiful seasonal album I highly recommend) to try to chill out and relax my muscles in the hope of getting the edge off of some of this pain because it has reached the overwhelming stage. I’m right on that edge right now of wondering whether to try my hardest to stay calm and relax myself before the tears start to spill… or purposely having a good cry to get the release that may come from that. I’m not sure which will happen yet. Maybe both. Maybe a good cry will enable me to lie down and really appreciate my Tori Amos music so I can try to relax my muscles. Time will tell. I am just going to try my best to listen to my body’s signals and do what my body wants and needs.

Finally, I will close with some links to previous Tori Amos posts… because her music is honestly one of my biggest coping mechanisms.

See previous posts HERE, HERE, and HERE.

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

Meet Emily:

When I began blogging in June 2008, I found a powerful video and contacted Emily (who had posted it). Those of you who read my previous blog, “Jeanne’s Endo Blog”, may recall seeing the video posted in its sidebar. Emily created it and graciously agreed to guest blog here about it. With 2,727 views on YouTube, this video is obviously resonating with many people. Emily has fibromyalgia and ME/CFS but I believe that just about anyone dealing with chronic illness/chronic pain can relate to this video. I appreciate her taking the time to write about how this video came to be.

Emily’s “project”… Behind the video:

Hi. Some of you may know me as caiquecrazy from Jeanne’s Endo Blog. Others may know me as the user booknhorsefreak, from YouTube. Two years ago, I published a slideshow on YouTube titled Don’t Judge – The Saga of Chronic Pain. It was a little pet project I put together one day as I was sitting home, reading a fibromyalgia/chronic pain support group site, and feeling increasingly sorry for myself. I was at a low point in my life – I was feeling desperate, like my life was slipping away and I was being held captive by something I had no control over – chronic, debilitating pain.

I had found some letters that were titled ‘Letters to Normals’ that outlined the rage, the pain, the rejection, and the frustration that people who suffered from chronic pain had written in an effort to explain their situations to the ‘normals’ – the healthy ones. I sat for hours sifting through notes and letters, crying in relief that someone else got it. That the person who had put pen to paper actually understood my point of view. This is what brought around the idea of the video.

I have a background working with horses. Before the pain came to be a constant part of my life, horses were my home. I worked on a ranch in exchange for riding lessons, and took refuge in their strength. I am small in stature, and being able to work in unison with an animal that could easily overpower me taught me lessons in strength, emotion, steadfastness, and partnership. When at first I began to experience pain, I pushed through and continued to ride my beloved equines.

However, I began to lose my ability to ride safely – my balance became off, my pain threshold lowered, and I no longer had the strength to boost myself into the saddle. After a while, I simply stepped away from horses – not being able to ride was like tearing my heart out. I learned to watch on the sidelines and observe the body language of horses – it thrilled me to watch them in action, and I learned to pick up on the small things that riders generally don’t pay attention to. I was able to float into a dreamland of watching and waiting, fueled by my desire to one day incorporate horses into my life, whatever the price.

As I made this video, I was using an electric scooter to get around my school campus, because my manual wheelchair was too hard to maneuver with my failing rotator cuffs. I was going to the doctors religiously, and they had me hooked up to a constant tens unit in an effort to help relax my muscles and relieve some of the pain. I isolated myself quite effectively from the normal crowd, and withdrew into my world that was full of books, daydreams, and computers. I became increasingly depressed and frustrated with my situation as I silently celebrated my 6th year of constant chronic pain. At the time, I was only 18 years old.

Despite not having worked with horses for about 3 years, they still galloped across my dreams and stamped their way into my heart. They were a sort of muse for me, every creative piece I wrote or dreamed was centered around something equine. I often wished they could gallop away with my fears, and replace my emotions with joy and peace. When I sat down to create this video, I wasn’t trying to be creative or even symbolic – I was trying to put into words the thoughts that were going around my head.

I made a list of words that I use on a regular basis to describe my condition. Suffering, pain, sadness, despair, loneliness, anger, hopelessness, defeat, broken, lost, anguish. I melded these words into silent riders, situated on horses – words to be taken away and carried into the atmosphere, never to be absorbed by me again. Through my tears while making this video, I derived a mission statement. I boldly stated that ‘I will not be defined by my pain’. From there – the video took flight.

I made a rider crafted out of the word freedom, and placed on that on a cantering horse. Following that rider are images of wild herds running free – the best site in the world, the site that never ceases to soothe my soul. The rest of the images are riderless – they need no riders to saddle them with the weight of the world. They are free.

I set this all to a song called “Wild Horses” by Natasha Bedingfield.

The lyrics are well suited to the video, saying:

“I see the girl I wanna be
Riding bare back, care free along the shore
If only that someone was me
Jumping head first headlong without a thought
To act and damn the consequence
How I wish it could be that easy
But fear surrounds me like a fence
I wanna break free”

[Editor's Note: See this link for complete lyrics to Wild Horses by Natasha Bedingfield].

I hastily submitted the video to YouTube before I lost my cool and backed out. It’s been up ever since, and for the past 2 years I have been receiving thank you notes from various viewers, thanking me for putting into words and pictures what they could not begin to explain.

A silly little imaginative whim in my mind formed into an outlet that helped me bridge some ties to the chronic pain community.

Emily recently traveled to Nicaragua

Since that video, much has changed. Yes, I do still suffer from pain. Yes, I do have restrictions and limitations on my abilities. But I don’t let it stop me. I’ve stopped using my wheelchair and scooter – they branded me more then I could ever want. Instead of staying home to bury myself in another book, I got involved in the community. I push myself to my limits on a regular basis, and surprise myself when I sometimes surpass what I believe even I was capable of. Recently I got back from a 10 day mission trip in the heart of Nicaragua. I hiked miles around a volcanic crater; something that if you had told me I would do 2 years ago, I would have laughed. Sometimes, I go and re-visit the pictures, because I can’t believe it actually happened. I paid dearly for that hike – but I refused to miss out on a once in a lifetime experience. I chose to live life, and happily take the consequences that came with it. As a result, I have memories that even on the most pain filled day, I can look back on and remind myself of what I accomplished.

Emily literally climbed this mountain…………

I hope you enjoyed the video. I honestly can’t say I enjoy it – it reminds me too much of what I once was, and how low that time of my life was. However, it also brings me comfort – whenever I receive a ‘thank you’ letter from an anonymous reader, letting me know that my silly little pet project helped them, it brings a smile to my face.

I’m glad I can provide words to others, the same words that for so long I attempted to elude. Now I embrace those words with open arms, and I set them free.

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

As many of you have concluded by now, my twitter account has been impersonated.

Before I proceed, let me mention that the single easiest, simplest way to reach my authentic twitter page is to click on the twitter icon (small blue heart) in the right sidebar of this blog. This will route you straight to my account. If you are following any accounts that look very similar but have a differently spelled twitter name, please block them!

Please read this post carefully as the twitter account that is posing as me has caused confusion and I want to help you know which account is which so that you will not accidentally follow the hacker’s account.

Here is a picture of my twitter page:

Please note the spelling of my twitter name:

@jeanneendo

Please be aware that the impostor’s account uses a very similar twitter name spelling, uses my exact same avatar picture, uses the same twitter page background I use, etc. In other words, visually these two accounts look extremely alike!

I am not going to mention the impostor’s account name here because I don’t want to give that account any more “free publicity” than it has already gotten. If you think you may be listed as a follower to the impostor’s account and want to block it, simply skim through the list of who you’re following. If you see an account that looks like me, please look closely at the spelling of the twitter account name. If it is anything other than my account listed above, PLEASE block it.

Some of my twitter followers have already accidentally followed the hacker account thinking it was me. If you have followed any twitter account other than what I list above, thinking that you were following me… please block that account. Obviously, it’s important that my twitter followers not also be following the account of the impostor posing as me.

The impostor has sent out messages aimed at hurting not just me but my twitter friends. I ask that anyone who is accidentally following the impostor’s account as well as mine or in place of mine (you see, the impostor is doing an impostor’s job and confusing people as to which account is which and there have been people who have followed me for years and stopped following me/started following the impostor, thinking that my real account is the impostor)… simply block the impostor’s account.

If you are unsure of whether you are following the impostor, I ask you to please check who you are following to make sure that you are not following the “look-alike” account.

I have one and only one twitter account. It is the same one I have been using since 2007.

Again it’s:

@jeanneendo

As of the writing of this post, I have 8,514 tweets listed on my authentic account. However, the important part to pay attention to for differentiating my twitter account from any impostor is to pay close attention to the spelling of my twitter name:

@jeanneendo

Again, the screen shot above shows my REAL account. Again, the impostor’s twitter page looks very similar.

Unlike the impostor, I do not use profanity in tweets. I have seen tweets sent by the impostor which contain profanity and hurtful attacks on individuals.

For anyone reading this who is confused about who @jeanneendo is, I would encourage you to look through this blog and get a better understanding of what I write about and do. With the confusion caused by the impostor, the best way to get a handle on what @jeanneendo is about might be to take a bit of time to read this blog… and see what I have written in my own words, see what topics I write about, etc.

Last but not least, I would obviously like to get this message out to as many people as possible. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate and Stumbles you could do. I would also be grateful for any “Tweet Me” updates you can do. There are many people confused about what’s happening. I am only one person and answering everyone’s questions in a timely fashion is quite impossible with the number of questions I’m getting. My hope is that this post covers the #1 question people have been asking me… Which account is real and which account is the impostor?

Thank you for your patience and understanding in getting through the challenges posed by this unfortunate incident!

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

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Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<

I have a notion some of you are going to be able to relate to the topic of being overwhelmed…

One word sums up this week for me… overwhelmed! I’ll just focus on my overwhelmed state online. I won’t take the space or energy to delve into the “in real life” aspects. Here goes…

I had grand plans for all of the posts I was going to do about various chronic conditions this week in honor of Invisible Illness Awareness Week. There are so many invisible illnesses that I have myself and have written about in the past (endometriosis, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, and interstitial cystitis… just to name a few) and that I was planning on focusing on this week.

However, whatever the date on the calendar may be and whatever I may try to plan, I have learned that I have to listen to my body. This was a tiring week. I did the best I could. I managed to do an Invisible Illness Awareness Week post on kickoff day and since then I have written posts about chronically ill blogger friends of mine who were in need of support:

… for Allison HERE and for Melissa HERE

Most of my time online this week was on twitter. I promoted Invisible Illness Week there and I did my best to rally support for my friends. With twitter I can use short bursts of energy. Even when I spend a more extended period on twitter, I don’t have as much trouble concentrating on what I’m writing as I do for a post. So sometimes when I’m really struggling (like this week), I’m actually on twitter more.

Is there a 50% complete post sitting in my draft folder on Invisible Illness Week? Yes. Do I have enough energy to finish it? No. It’s not getting finished, unfortunately. This post I am writing right now and some brief time on twitter will probably be about all I can handle today, especially considering I just got back from seeing my primary care physician (almost an hour drive each way) and I saw my dentist earlier in the week (also an hour each way).

Bottom line… I am exhausted. My email is the most backed up it’s ever been (which is saying a lot!), my comments moderation is currently backlogged (which I try not to let happen), I feel guilty because there are so many blogs I’m long overdue to visit and/or comment on, and right now I just can’t stress about it.

So, if you’d like to read about the topics I mentioned or other chronic conditions I have blogged about, please check out the “categories” section or search box in my blog’s right sidebar.

If I had the energy I’d finish that post where I was going to generate all the hyperlinks and sort them by illness. However, I have to listen to my body and right now it is telling me to SLOW DOWN.

Oh, I should make note that I also have blogged extensively about infertility. There are so many women with endometriosis who have infertility and this is a topic near and dear to my heart. So I just wanted to be sure to point that out too!

I wish I could write more but I’m about to drop. This has been an emotional, tiring, busy, draining, stressful, exhausting week. It did not help one bit that my period came early again and that it is zapping my energy like there’s no tomorrow. Endometriosis has a tendency to sometimes do such lovely things. (At least in my 27 years living with it I have found that to be true).

So, if you are chronically ill and/or in chronic pain and you feel tired or guilty for what you didn’t get done today… cut yourself some slack and get some rest. We can only do our best (i.e. our best without pushing ourselves TOO hard in unhealthy ways). After that, we just need to step back and accept that “it is what it is”. So, take a deep breath and go engage in some form of self care.

Whether it’s a cup of tea or popping in your favorite CD, do something to make yourself feel good and try to distract yourself from your symptoms and just relax your muscles. Your body will thank you.

How about you? Are you overwhelmed? How do you calm down or cope when you get overwhelmed? Please leave comments on this topic. When we share our coping skills, we help ourselves and help others simultaneously.

Let’s help each other. Please share your ideas.

This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.

“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have supported my blog in this way; I greatly appreciate your support!!

Thank you for your blog comments!

New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.

>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<