Category — Infertility

Extra extra! Here is some exciting news!

Amanda Fisher of Amanda’s Patch

Regular readers here most likely recognize Amanda from seeing her here before. For newer readers, Amanda is an endometriosis patient who is passionate about endometriosis awareness. Yesterday marked the publication of the first piece in her series on
iVillage UK:

Endometriosis – the ‘invisible’ illness

Congratulations to Amanda for becoming a published columnist on iVillage UK!

Amanda is doing great things to generate endometriosis awareness. Please show Amanda your support by commenting on her iVillage UK article and by clicking “like” on that site for Facebook for this first article in a series.

Also, please check out her own site:

This is a wonderful opportunity for endometriosis patients to rally around Amanda and support her as she sets out to write a series about endometriosis and trying to conceive. Please pay her a visit… on iVillage UK and on her blog.

It’s very exciting to have Amanda speaking out about endometriosis in such a prominent forum. If endometriosis patients visit iVillage UK in droves, the site will recognize what a smart move they’ve made in electing to publish Amanda’s series.

Last but not least, if you haven’t yet signed the endometriosis awareness petition… please consider taking just a moment to do so by clicking below:

If you are interesting in posting the petition badge above on your site, please leave a comment on this post and I’ll get the code out to you. Thank you for supporting the 89 million endometriosis patients worldwide who deserve prompt diagnosis and top-notch treatment for this chronic illness!

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! <<

Normally, I go out of my way not to write about specific pharmaceutical drugs or health care practitioners on my blog. However, rules are made to be broken and I have decided this is one case where I am comfortable breaking my own rules.

A friend sent me the following link:

New Form Of Ketamine Treats Depression “Like Magic”

The above article talks of research published August 20th in the prestigious medical journal, Science. I attempted to find the original source for this story (that Science article) but when I searched for the article on their site, I found this:

Antidepressant Action of Ketamine
Science 20 August 2010
329: 883 [DOI: 10.1126/science.329.5994.883-d]
(in This Week in Science)

That article is not accessible for free. As I am not on a position to pay to see the Science article, I have had to content myself with Googling to read various links that refer to it. (Sometimes I miss my university days where I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg every time I wanted to read a medical journal article).

In any event, if anyone reading this DOES have access to “Science”, would you please be so kind as to leave me a blog comment letting me know?

In the meantime, it is exciting to know that there is a potential treatment for depression that is supposed to be far faster-acting than previous treatments.

Here is an excerpt regarding the research published in the August 20, 2010 Science journal:

Senior author Dr Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale, said that he and his team found that the drug not only improved the rats’ depression-like behaviors, it also restored connections between neurons or brain cells that had been damaged by chronic stress. They called this “synaptogenesis”.

They hope their findings will help to speed up the development of a safe and easy to administer version of ketamine, which has already proved to be effective in severely depressed patients, they said.

Mayo Clinic: Pain and depression: Is there a link?

I have written about suicide before on multiple occasions. Endochick and I have been receiving DAILY blog traffic on search strings like “endometriosis and suicide” for months now. In fact, that has been the most commonly searched phrase for my blog. It is a sobering thought for me.

I take this topic very seriously and always make sure to list the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number in posts that mention suicide:

1-800-273-TALK
This number works 24/7, 365 days of the year in the U.S.

The website for this same organization is:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Here is their Facebook page:

Facebook page for National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

I encourage readers outside the U.S. to post comments with similar suicide prevention hotline numbers.

If you’d like to see another post I came across recently about the topic of suicide, see below:

Suicide, Chronic Pain, Real People

The connection between chronic illness/pain and depression is a common one. No matter how alone you may feel, you are never alone. If you are having thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call this number: 1-800-273-TALK. The trained professionals there can help.

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! <<

Please check out this endometriosis video I made today:

If you have not read the post listed below previously, it was mentioned in the video above:

Endometriosis Apathy?

Just click below for information regarding endometriosis research currently being performed by Endochick:

Endochick

Endometriosis Patients Needed

Artwork by Nicole from Switzerland, featured on the Amanda’s Patch site.

Also mentioned in this video was Amanda’s site, which is generating awareness about endometriosis in a variety of ways:

Amanda’s Patch

Don’t miss her new YouTube Channel here:

Amanda’s YouTube Channel

Last but not least, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Click here if you are interested in signing our endometriosis awareness petition:

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

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

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! <<

Since 1982, I have lived with endometriosis. It took me 10 years to finally have a laparoscopy and be properly diagnosed with it but I have lived with it for 28 years now. It is important to me to begin by saying that I have met some of the most caring, compassionate, supportive, loving women in the endometriosis patient community (online and off). In the last two years online and in the years I participated in local (in person) endometriosis support groups (1992-2008), I have had the good fortune of meeting some of the most amazing people! It is important to me to note this up front because I am about to write what may end up being a controversial post. My purpose with this post is definitely not to upset anyone but to draw attention to a matter that I believe needs attention and analysis. So, I will be sharing my opinions here. In my daily activities online, I perceive an imbalance between endometriosis patient advocacy work and patient advocacy work for other chronic illnesses.

Before I proceed, I also want to be clear that I ordinarily am not a fan of comparing one illness to another or comparing one patient to another. Everyone is unique and different. At the same time, I believe that comparing and contrasting can sometimes be a useful means of getting context. Sometimes, comparison is helpful because it shines a light on differences that may indicate where there is room for improvement. So, please hold your hate mail and understand that I am writing this post (which I have been mulling around in my mind for many months) because I LOVE my fellow endometriosis patients very much.

That said, let me start by directing you to comments I exchanged with Jenn in the blog comments section for this post: MCS Letter To Oprah. See comments 5-8 for our exchange.

Over many months, I have observed a large imbalance between the level of patient advocacy work done on illnesses such as multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and ME/CFS and the patient advocacy work done by endometriosis patients. MCS and ME/CFS patients I encounter online daily are, as a general rule, more likely to engage in letter-writing campaigns, petition signing, and information sharing than endometriosis patients. These patients are very ill… just like endometriosis patients. These patients have poorly understood conditions… just like endometriosis patients. These patients are faced with many frustrations and challenges… just like endometriosis patients. However, for whatever reason, MCS and ME/CFS patients are more tightly organized in their advocacy (from my perception) despite the fact that many of them are ill enough to be housebound or even bed bound.

Let me give one example. I posted this XMRV retrovirus petition recently (a petition that many ME/CFS patients are interested in):

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

At the time I posted it (very recently), I believe it had about 40 signatures. It now has 893 signatures.

Our endometriosis petition was started in 2008. While it is wonderful that we have 633 signatures (many with passionate comments attached), I am left wondering why we don’t have far more signatures than that…

An estimated 89 MILLION women and girls worldwide have endometriosis!

“It is estimated that between 2 percent and 10 percent of American women – or 5.5 million women and girls – of childbearing age have endometriosis. This makes endometriosis more common than AIDS and more common than cancer. Endometriosis is one of the three major causes of female infertility”, as per Ohio State University Medical Center.

Now, my blog has far more endometriosis readers than ME/CFS readers. Yes, of course, the XMRV petition is posted all over the Internet. There again, though, endometriosis patients who wish to post the endometriosis petition can post it widely too. Many people reading this post already have posted the endometriosis petition badge on their sites. The thing is that if endometriosis patients were as well organized as ME/CFS patients or MCS patients, I firmly believe that the petition could be posted on far more sites and could have garnered far more signatures by now.

As I’ve watched the number of signatures on the XMRV petition multiplying exponentially, I could not help but wonder why I sometimes feel like I’m pulling teeth to garner signatures on the endometriosis awareness petition. Many people have worked hard to get the word out about that endometriosis petition and I’m not trying to take anything away from the fact that we’ve gotten 633 signatures to date. At the same time, I can’t help thinking that we should have more signatures than we do. We’re talking about a condition that is “more common than AIDS and more common than cancer”! I just don’t think enough people are seeing the petition. This is where the teamwork and organization comes into play. I hate to say it but my perception is that endometriosis patients are not as organized as some other patient populations. I’ve reached this conclusion after what I have seen online in the past two years.

To be clear… I would never, ever want anyone to feel that I am criticizing endometriosis patients in any way, shape, or form. Endometriosis patients have numerous hurdles and challenges because of their illness. Many endometriosis patients have co-existing illnesses such as fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis, or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)… to name a few. I understand this because I have all of the above (and then some) myself.

My goal with this post is to shine a spotlight on what I view as an opportunity… for endometriosis patients to engage in more teamwork, increased networking with fellow patients, and more information sharing. Having participated in endometriosis support group meetings (monthly, in person) from 1992-2008, I have met a great number of endometriosis patients in person. In blogging since 2008, I have “met” too many endometriosis patients to count online. My goal is to encourage endometriosis patients to think about whether there is anything they can do for the endometriosis cause that they haven’t.

To be sure, I don’t have a magic list of things people can do to take action. I am just including a few suggestions.

Five ways to help the endometriosis cause:

1) Please sign the endometriosis petition if you haven’t already. If you have already signed, why not ask your friends and loved ones to sign it too? There is strength in numbers. Signatures accompanied by personal comments are particularly effective.

2) Post the petition badge – such as the blue one above – on your site if you have a website or blog. This will give your readers the opportunity to support the endometriosis cause. (If you are interested in obtaining the code for the blue petition badge – which automatically counts up every time someone signs it – please simply leave a comment on this post and I’ll be happy to email the code to you. Then it’s just a quick copy/paste to have the same petition badge posted on your site)!

3) Don’t have a site? No problem! Why not share this link to the petition on your Facebook page, on Twitter, or in an email to friends and loved ones who might love a way to support you by supporting the endometriosis cause? (Loved ones are often grateful for a tangible way to help endometriosis patients… since this illness can cause feelings of helplessness).

4) If you haven’t already done so, check out this post: Endometriosis Advocacy and the Media (Re-post). It explains a case where we put the petition to use in pressuring the media to correct errors that were printed about endometriosis – in a syndicated column that was written by a gynecologist! Our voices were heard by the editorial staff of this newspaper!

5) Last but most certainly not least, please contact Endochick (see email address below) regarding the endometriosis research she is conducting as part of her graduate school studies in pursuit of a Patient Safety degree. She cares very deeply about endometriosis and is working to improve communication between endometriosis patients and physicians, among other things.

If interested in the endometriosis research mentioned in the post above, please e-mail:

“endochick 80@gmail.com”

Please remove the space between endochick and 80 when e-mailing and put RESEARCH in the subject line.

This is just a very short list that may serve as a jumping off point. I don’t have any magic answers for how endometriosis patients can get better organized and become more involved in advocacy work on behalf of the endometriosis cause (and the 89 million patients worldwide who have endometriosis). I realize that many endometriosis patients are too sick, busy, and tired to become tireless advocates for endometriosis.

I also strongly believe that every little bit helps.

If enough endometriosis patients join forces and work together as a team, endometriosis advocates could become every bit as effective as the multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) advocates and ME/CFS advocates I encounter online every day. When I see friends online who are multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients (many who are housebound or even bed bound) who are writing letters, calling their legislators, signing petitions, etc., I cannot help but wonder why there is so much less of this activism with endometriosis patients.

Helping the cause doesn’t necessarily have to be time-consuming! Signing the petition takes just moments. Posting it on a blog takes moments too.

Contacting Endochick is fast and easy!

Again, here is her email address:

Endochick’s e-mail “endochick 80@gmail.com” (just remove the space between endochick and 80 when e-mailing)

I strongly encourage endometriosis patients to contact her regarding her endometriosis research.

When I picked the title for this blog post, I did not mean to upset anyone. I named it “Endometriosis Apathy?” because I KNOW how passionate endometriosis patients are but I don’t see the same level of patient advocacy for endometriosis as for some other chronic illnesses. Actions speak louder than words. I have heard, in words, how utterly devastating endometriosis is for patients. I would love to see the passionate words that have been expressed to me again and again turned into action on behalf of the endometriosis cause… and the 89 million patients who live with it.

Any one of us alone can be left feeling like we might as well be climbing mountains when we ponder the idea of doing advocacy work for endometriosis. It’s true that many of us are not physically capable of climbing mountains in the literal sense. However, I believe that working together enables us to “climb mountains”.

By getting more tightly organized as a team of passionate advocates, we CAN make a difference. Let’s do it!

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! <<

Please note:

My purpose for writing this post is not to initiate a philosophical, religious, or ethical discussion about the topic of suicide. My purpose here is to address the traffic that my blog has been receiving on a daily basis. For several months now, my blog has been receiving daily traffic from people searching phrases such as “endometriosis and suicide” or “suicide endometriosis”. This may be a taboo subject but I can’t remain silent about it.

I have written about this topic previously here: Endometriosis and Suicide: Awareness and National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Recently, I learned through an endometriosis organization of yet another endometriosis patient having committed suicide. Also, this post In Memory Of An Endometriosis Patient has been receiving multiple visits in the last week. That post was about Kristi An Rose (March 11, 1978 – May 7, 2009). Her obituary is here from the Kokomo Tribune.

When the local endometriosis support group I started met monthly (2001- 2008), I got to know a woman who made multiple suicide attempts. (She has endometriosis and co-existing conditions to it and has debilitating pain).

It is very common for chronically ill patients to become depressed. While this (depression) is common with many chronic conditions, I am focusing on endometriosis in particular for this post because of the type of searches that are resulting in people landing on my blog. (Depression is a risk factor for suicide).

Endochick and I have talked extensively about the topic of blog traffic searching on phrases like “endometriosis and suicide” because she too has been getting daily traffic of the same sort I’m getting. We are concerned about the daily traffic regarding “endometriosis and suicide”.

The following award-winning video was posted on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline site. After you hit play, I encourage you to click the option to view the extended version (about 15 minutes long).

Yesterday, when I checked the traffic statistics for my blog I was alarmed to find that “endometriosis and suicide” was the most-searched term that led people to my blog and “suicide endometriosis” was third-most-searched.

I feel I have a responsibility to continue to speak up about the 24 hour hotline (which is free of charge). Chronic pain/illness can lead to depression which can lead to suicidal ideations. However, help is available. If you are having suicidal thoughts, please call the hotline above 1-800-273-TALK.

After extensive searching online (hours), I was unable to find any research papers on endometriosis and suicide. Considering the amount of traffic this topic is generating online, I was hoping to find some research about it. The fact that I was unable to find any such research tells me that researchers have not paid enough attention to this issue. (When I widened my search to “chronic pain and suicide”, I didn’t fare much better).

The following is a quote from Matthew K. Nock (article below).

“Studies have repeatedly shown that most (>90%) of those who die by suicide have a mental disorder like depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, or substance use and so it is important also to screen for and treat these problems”.

While I’m fully aware of this statistic, my concern is that patients with chronic illness/pain (such as endometriosis patients) may not ever get properly diagnosed with, say, depression. After all, so many doctors treat their physical condition (endometriosis) as if it is some sort of psychosomatic condition that endometriosis patients are probably more likely than most NOT to seek treatment if depression does occur… because they may have spent many years trying to convince doctors, loved ones, and themselves that their problems are PHYSICAL. However, there is nothing saying they might not have physical and mental health issues.

Here is the Boston.com article I just referred to:

Matthew K. Nock’s work on Preventing suicide

This excerpt from the above article really surprised me… “more people die each year by suicide than by homicide or war”. In the comments to the article, he referenced statistics from the Centers for Disease Control. The statistics are startling.

Here is the CDC’s .PDF file called Suicide: Facts At A Glance.

As per the CDC link above, in 2006:

“More than 33,000 suicides occurred in the U.S. This is the equivalent of 91 suicides per day; one suicide every 16 minutes or 10.95 suicides per 100,000 population”.

Those numbers really jumped out at me. The notion that more people die each year by suicide than by homicide or war is mind-boggling.

Please, if you are having suicidal thoughts… seek professional help. Calling the lifeline listed above is a way to get started if you don’t know how to go about navigating the behavioral health care system.

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 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

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

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! <<

We have a winner! Recently, I wrote about this blog’s two year anniversary: Two Years: Reflecting and was overwhelmed with the thoughtful responses it elicited. (Thank you, everyone!) The randomly picked comment number that determined the winner of the contest was number 11. Endochick left comment number 11.

Congratulations Endochick!

Longtime readers here may not recognize Endochick as she has lost a significant amount of weight. Look at her. Doesn’t she look like a teenager now?

Here, again, is the beautiful, handmade amethyst and aventurine healing crystal necklace she won… which was generously donated by Amanda of Amanda’s Patch:

Thank you to Amanda for the generous donation and congratulations to Endochick!

So, we’re done, right?

Wait! There’s more…

Endochick is looking for endometriosis patients:

Endometriosis Patients Needed

Here is some information from Endochick regarding the work that she is doing as part of her graduate school program for an M.S. degree in Patient Safety:

“As per graduate school requirement, I am conducting research on endometriosis patients and their relationship with physicians. Your name, address, phone number, and other personal data is not needed. All I will initially need is your current age, age of diagnosis, and date of your diagnostic laparoscopy (or other pelvic surgery where endometriosis was initially discovered). I will then send qualified women a questionnaire to fill out, at their convenience, and return to me via e-mail”…

“Thank you. Hopefully together we can improve the patient-physician relationship, increase communication, and reduce errors that occur with endometriosis patients”.

For more information, please see Endochick’s post about this research RIGHT HERE. Also, please spread the word about her endometriosis research via Twitter, Facebook, email, blog posts, and word of mouth. Endochick is extremely passionate about the endometriosis cause and the more people we can get the word out to, the better! Thank you!

So, endometriosis patients… you’re headed over to Endochick’s blog right now, aren’t you?

Thank you very much!

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! <<

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! <<

Wow! It has been nine days since my last post. It is extremely unusual for me to have so much space between posts. However, my body has made it clear that I have reached the “rest is just not optional” zone. I have learned to heed the warnings from my body when things reach this zone.

Beginning HERE in March, I have been really busy working on various awareness days, weeks, and months. By “really busy”, I mean striving to avoid burnout. Too busy.

Some of the advocacy work I have been doing was posted here and other information was posted on other sites such as Facebook.

Also, I set up a new group in March called Endometriosis and MCS for patients who have both chemical sensitivity and endometriosis on The Canary Report’s NING network. Unfortunately, I have been so busy with all of the awareness activities that I haven’t really spent very much time, as of yet, on that group. However, the good news is that I have identified many women who have both chemical sensitivity and endometriosis and several of them have joined the group. So, I think we’ll get it active once things have calmed down and I have a chance to focus some energy on it. I believe it’s important to look at connections between conditions that have overlapping populations and look forward to talking with the group members who’ve already joined and those who will do so.

In addition to the awareness issues I’ve been working on, I picked up several Facebook friends who have interstitial cystitis (IC) during the course of Endometriosis Awareness Month. As many readers here are already aware, endometriosis and interstitial cystitis are considered to be co-existing (sometimes called “overlapping) conditions. Here is a shout-out to Melissa Bachoo. She is an IC patient I have had the privilege of getting to know via Facebook over the last few months and she is a very thoughtful, caring person. If you have IC and you are a Facebook user, I recommend getting connected with Melissa Bachoo.

I have had a great deal of off-blog communications 1:1 with people. While I am very happy to have gotten to know some new people and have also interacted with people I’ve known awhile, it does take time to try to keep up communications with people. If you are one of many people that sent me a message via Facebook or The Canary Report’s NING Network in March, April or May who I have yet to respond to, please consider this my blanket apology for recently finding it quite impossible to keep up with replies. I am not ignoring you and I’m really sorry for the delay. I have never felt so behind in replying to people’s messages. Please don’t take it personally. I have just been trying to tackle way too much in the last couple of months.

Regarding endometriosis and IC as overlapping conditions, please see related press release here from the Overlapping Conditions Alliance:

The Overlapping Conditions Alliance Launches the ‘Campaign to End Chronic Pain in Women’ on Capitol Hill, to Fight Discrimination Against Women in U.S. Healthcare

I am far too exhausted and drained right now to compile a comprehensive list of awareness posts from the last couple of months (which you can easily find in the archives or by searching via topic words). However, I did select a few recent posts that were either written specifically for awareness days/weeks/months or that were written during that same time period that I thought might be of interest. This is just a sampling. Again, there are more related posts available and I encourage you to check them out by using archives or search (both located in the right sidebar).

Here are some topics covered during the last couple of months in conjunction with awareness days, weeks, and/or months (in no particular order):

endometriosis

fibromyalgia

ME/CFS

multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)

infertility

endometriosis

infertility

endometriosis and MCS

Last but not least, I wanted to give a shout-out to a blogger I met relatively recently. Her name is Jenn and her relatively new blog has already covered an array of endometriosis-related topics. If you haven’t yet checked out her blog Endo Friendo, I encourage you to do so.

In the short time Jenn has been writing a blog, she has talked about alternative nausea treatment, preparing for surgery with methods like guided imagery and Jin Shin Jyutsu, infertility awareness week, our endometriosis awareness petition, and much more. Jenn is passionate about the endo cause and has a great sense of humor. She is a shining example of how not to let endometriosis get you down. Please drop by her blog and say hello. Her open-minded, caring manner makes her a pleasure to know. I feel like I’ve known her longer than I have thanks to our off-blog communication.

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! <<

:
Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, author of Silent Sorority.

Regular readers have heard me talk about Pamela’s book. This post (Silent Sorority Review) links to my book review of it on Amazon.

However, this post is about Pamela’s article featured today in New York Times Magazine’s… Motherlode: “A Non-Mother’s Day”.

Here is the link to Pamela’s new article:

Mother’s Day: A Cultural Crucible

Kelly Damron had this to say about Pamela’s guest blog article.

Regarding comments left on the article in the New York Times, I was saddened (but not surprised) to read some of the incredibly insensitive comments that some people posted regarding Pamela’s article. Our society has much room for improvement in regard to support for infertile couples. As Kelly alluded to in her blog post, adoption is not the right option for all infertile couples. Pamela’s book did a great job covering this topic.

As a side note, I highly recommend Pamela’s book. Some of those who commented on her New York Times article could really benefit from reading her book. It provides validation and support for those struggling with infertility, keen insights into what infertile couples struggle with for those who are fertile, and a road map for navigating the landmine-type atmosphere of battling infertility.

My hope is that someday the same type of insensitive comments that some people posted to Pamela’s article will not occur for future articles due to increased awareness, understanding, and sensitivity in our society regarding infertility. It saddens me that so many people seem to lack basic compassion and empathy for those who have struggled with or are struggling with infertility.

This Mother’s Day weekend, I wanted to leave you with Pamela’s article as a follow-up to my previous post, Mother’s Day Mourning.

My thoughts this Mother’s Day weekend are with the many men and women who are struggling with or have struggled with infertility. This is a challenging time of year for those who have lost loved ones as well. Please keep these people in your thoughts.

In addition to the insights provided by Pamela’s book, you can follow her newest blog A Fresh Start.

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! <<