Category — Raynaud’s

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

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

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! <<

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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! <<

Yesterday, I watched the bipartisan meeting on health reform. The summit was fascinating to me for many reasons but there was a highlight, for me, in the form of remarks made by Rep. Louise Slaughter. She really stood up for women’s health!

Rep. Louise Slaughter

She boldly spoke up for women at the 2/25/2010 health summit

In my mind, her comments can be appreciated by all women and especially any any female patient who has lived with the effects of gender discrimination in relation to medical research (i.e. lack of research on women or lack of investigating illnesses that affect just women) or cost of healthcare that is tied to gender. I won’t even get into a discussion of how common it is for women’s symptoms to be dismissed when similar symptoms would be taken more seriously for males (i.e. heart disease). The point is that Rep. Louise Slaughter stood up for all women and I was just beyond thrilled that she took the opportunity presented by the summit to address these issues.

My thanks to Diana of the Somebody Heal Me blog for posting this video. When I clicked on the link she posted (to the video below), it took me to the Odd Time Signatures site.

Yesterday, I was so thrilled to hear what Rep. Louise Slaughter said that I resolved myself to scour the Internet today to find a video clip of her at yesterday’s summit. Again, Rep. Slaughter wasn’t just speaking up about health reform.

She was speaking up for female patients everywhere and she was shining light on the fact that medical research studies were done almost exclusively on white males up until a startlingly short time ago, relatively speaking. I believe that any patient with an illness that affects women can appreciate the way Rep. Louise Slaughter spoke up for ALL female patients.

As a patient with numerous illnesses that either affect women alone or that affect more women than men, I was absolutely ecstatic to hear Rep. Louise Slaughter articulate what too few people are aware of… and to hear her do so in such a public forum!

There IS gender discrimination not only in the area of medical research but in the very cost of health insurance itself for women vs. men. Before I had even had a chance to locate a video of Rep. Louise Slaughter at yesterday’s summit, I came across a link from Diana that led me to Odd Time Signatures site.

(Video run time 12 minutes and 59 seconds):

Did you miss the summit? I will warn you up front. It’s long. However, you can scroll through the link below and watch parts of it if you choose to. (This video was just a snippet from the summit).

The link below has the summit, in its entirety, broken down into five video parts. You can watch some or all of it at the link below:

Bipartisan Health Care Meeting

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! <<

(Photo credit – Getty)

I have written previously regarding healthcare and wanted to take a moment here to post an update on the current situation, for those of you who may not be aware of the status of things at this time.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I will cite the following post from:

S E N A T U S: Daily Coverage of the United States Senate

See “About Senatus” (taken directly from that site):

Providing daily, non-partisan coverage of the U.S. Senate and the elections which determine its members. This is a private-citizen effort and is in no way affiliated with the federal government.

(Photo credit – Associated Press)

See the following post on the Senatus blog:

Reid Says Reconciliation Likely On Health Reform

According to various news reports, 20 senators have signed so far, calling on Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the public health insurance option through “reconciliation,” which only needs a simple majority in the Senate. If your Senator is listed as “unknown” on the list below, please consider taking a moment to email or call him/her requesting he/she join the 20 Senators who have already called on Majority Leader Harry Reid, as per above:

Name – ST – Status:

It is too late. I already am. Late. It seems like I’m late on everything both online and in real life. It is maddening. I feel like I can’t ever catch up. It’s always just a matter of how far behind I am on things.

I won’t bore you with the long list of things I’m late on in my real life. My to-do list has reached nauseating proportions. I’m going to need to take some drastic measures to make significant progress.

As far as online matters are concerned, I’m late moderating comments. I’m late answering Facebook messages. I’m late blogging. (This is my first post since Monday. I don’t usually have gaps like that between posts). I’m really late on responding to email.

So, if you are one of the people wondering why I am so slow responding to a comment or an email… please accept this as my apology. It has been a stressful week.

Why? Why am I so stressed out?

I don’t have any big, dramatic news that explains why I am so stressed out. So, I found myself actually asking, “why am I so stressed out? I concluded that a large number of little things or moderately problematic issues have just culminated into one big pile of stress and that stress is on top of “medical stress” (meaning stress associated with all things medical, a type of stress I’ve had plenty of this week too).

So, I’ve had some significant “medical stress” this week but I can honestly say that this – what prompted this post – is other stress on top of that. Does that make sense? Anyone who is chronically ill knows that medical issues certainly cause plenty of stress. Obviously, the illnesses are probably the biggest stressor I have in general.

(Do me a favor and pretend that is a pile of stress. Oddly, I was unable to find a picture of one. I named this “stresswood”)

So, I think what I’m trying to say is that I am stressed by lots of non-medical issues that have popped up throughout the week on top of “medical stress”.

There are many reasons this week has been a stressful one. I won’t belabor the point with an exhaustive list of the many things that have stressed me out this week.

However, since this is a blog about chronic conditions, I will name the conditions that have been flaring up in some way this past week: fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, and Raynaud’s. I am too tired to hyperlink all of those conditions. So, if you are interested in reading about any of them, check my “categories” or “search this blog” options in the right sidebar… as most of the conditions I have mentioned have been written about on this blog before.

Needless to say, many of the above conditions trigger others listed above. So I’ve been dealing with the chain reaction syndrome I am very used to by now. So, I just wanted to surface for air long enough to let you know that I am drowning in tasks to do, I am going as fast as I can to catch up, and it may be awhile before that happens.

I have had several wonderful friends remind me in the last few days to practice what I preach and remember to make self-care a priority. So, I am going to listen to my wise, thoughtful friends (too many to list, I’m afraid, but you know who you are!) and try to remember the basics such as relaxing, breathing, and taking breaks. I also want to thank the friends who have given me special support this week. Again, there are too many to list but you know who you are.

Have a wonderful weekend. Peace out.

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! <<

Well, I finally made another video. Hopefully nobody is passing out. I know it has been awhile since I made one! Some of you probably thought my video-making days were over.

HINT: Please scroll down just far enough to view the video. If you scroll too far down the post before watching the video, you will miss out on properly seeing my surprise.

If you’d like to see what Hubby got me for my birthday (that’s the surprise), click play:

My Raynaud’s and fibromyalgia can make winter weather an interesting adventure! Gone are the days of me wearing shorts on snowy days. No, my body cannot handle that anymore!

Here is a still shot of my birthday present. (By the way, if you are this far into the post and you didn’t already watch the video, you are officially cheating).

I have a feeling any blogger out there will appreciate this gift. I first saw this shirt on Lee’s blog Perpetual Burn. (Lee designed the layout of the site of Alicia – aka Yaya: Yaya Stuff ). I contacted Lee to find out where she got it and then I planted a seed in Hubby’s head. (He had been asking me for ideas for a birthday gift). Voilà! Now I’ve got a blogging shirt.

Please check out my YouTube channel. Just click on the red heart for YouTube in the top right sidebar to access my channel.

Ratings and comments on videos are welcome. My YouTube channel is defaulting to the wrong view and I haven’t figured out how to fix it. When you pull up my channel, the top right corner has two options, “switch to grid view” and “switch to player view”. To view the channel on what it used to default to and make it easier to see things, simply click on “switch to player view”.

I have yet to figure out why this is happening and have just been flipping it manually myself. If anyone has any tips on how to save the default channel setting to “player view”, please let me know. My channel has been acting up ever since YouTube updated the appearance of all the channels. Thank you.

By the way, please don’t feel shy about Stumbling any posts you like here either. Just click “Stumble It!” at the bottom of any post you’d like to recommend to others. There is even an option to write a review of a blog if you wish to take it a step further. I appreciate your support. 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! <<