Day 8 #NHBPM – Write about how you choose to write about others in your blog.

Nov8

Here is a topic that I have never talked about. In fact it isn’t one I had ever thought much about. Thinking back over most of my post, I rarely talk about my friends and family. Mainly I talk about myself. When I look at my life and my disease, I look at how most of my life I spent in solitude with it. No one in my family really understood what I was going through. I remember a time when I was a teenager when my parents were practically dragging me out of bed to get dressed and go to school. They couldn’t understand what I was feeling mentally or physically. I don’t hold this against them because in all honestly, there was no way for them to understand. I myself didn’t understand the disease. As far as friends go, I hid my disease from them. I opened up a little but never really let anyone into that part of my life. My wife…my rock…she is the only one that has seen me at my worst. She has been there for the good and the bad. And yet, I don’t mention her much. Hmmm, that has to change.

So, how do I choose to write about them. Well, the truth is that I don’t think about it. When a story comes into my head I write it out. I don’t think about who I am writing about. When I finally see a person appear on the screen, that is when I will stop and think. I don’t want to make anyone look bad on here. So when I do mention someone close to me, I will look at what I have written just to make sure it is all good. Overall though, I try to keep my post about me just so I don’t offend friends and family.

Now, as far as online friends. That is a whole other story. I have mentioned other people before. Honestly, I always feel weird doing it. I try not to put last names and sometimes I will not put a name at all. But some people are so big within the community that if I just put a first name you will know who I am talking about. For these people, I don’t worry. I won’t write anything bad about them, that’s for sure. I know some people don’t like to be mentioned and if anyone tells me not to say their name, then I won’t. I look back on the guest post from Sarah. She told me at the last-minute not to use her last name…so I didn’t.

As far as the content that I write, I just write what pops into my head. Sometimes nothing pops in which is why I can go a week or two without a post. But I never focus on other people for my blog. Overall, it is me and me alone that I want to focus on. Well, except for my Follow Fridays..but that is to promote other sites where the people have already put their name out there.

Follow Friday for Oct 19th

Oct19

This has been a busy week for me. Three blogs in one week..wow. I was going to hold off on this one, but I felt like I wanted to put down what was fresh in my mind.

Last night, I had the pleasure of being in a focus group for a brand new website. It is still in its infacy and still trying to improve itself. But from what I see of it, it will go far. The website I had the honor to advise on is www.meddik.com. If you visit this right now, please please please remember that it is still being tested out so if you have problems let them know and give them some time to improve.

The site right now is based on people with Crohn’s, Colitis, and Celiac disease. But, anyone with any medical condition can go on it. There are posts from people with these diseases looking for help and advice. You can ask questions or answer others. One feature of theirs right now is that everyone for the most part is anonymous. That was one of the features we discused in the group and this might change.

One good article about this site was written here http://mashable.com/2012/05/29/meddik-video/. Lauren Hockenson talked with the co-founder Tim Soo and I thought this article best explains the site better than I could. I got to meet Tim last night and he is a really outgoing overall nice guy.

Now I know there are a lot of sites out there to get info and many more social sites. What will make this site different and better is that it will kind of work like Google. It will find results based on your preferences. You can filter what your needs are and it will find results that are like you and others that are realted in a sense. Do if you put a filter to look for Crohn’s Disease, it will pull and show you posts for CD. It will also find ones for IBD, Colitis, etc but …it will let you know how many finds are for your direct filter and how many are sort of related.

So, go check them out and let them know how you like it. If you really have strong feelings on how to help them, you can email me and I will forward it to them. Sometimes emails are better than a message on a website.

Feeling the IBD Love

Aug10

This week I was asked to do a guest post for a great website..which leads into this weeks “Follow Friday”. Usually the advice I give can be used by everyone but I normally have adults in mind. Well, this week I am here to talk to the youth.

So, this week I want to single out a great website that is run by The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada or CCFC. It is a site called The Gutsy Generation: (http://www.thegutsygeneration.ca/site/c.buLTK7OQLpK8E/b.6247843/k.C798/Connect.htm). The post I did can be found on their blog site which is http://thegutsygeneration.blogspot.com/.

Now I am not talking about them because I did a post for them. I am talking about them because they target a huge audience….the kids. Looking over their website, I was reminded of my own youth. I was 15 when I was diagnosed with IBD and essentially that is when my childhood ended. I remember the feelings and the pain like it was yesterday…yet it was 24 years ago. When I was first asked to write the post, I didn’t know what to write. I wanted to connect with the kids today that suffer, but wasn’t sure what to say. When all my memories started to flood me I said to myself….”That is what I am going to write”. I said from the beginning that I wanted to help people know they aren’t alone with their IBD and that was what I was going to do. By showing the youth out there that even us adults have gone through the pain and hurt…and survived it….I can help them to know that they also will survive.

It has been 2 days since I wrote the post and I still keep thinking about those first days. So much has changed thanks to the Crohn’s. I was a shy kid growing up. I didn’t have the best self-esteem and I was very unsure of myself. I was an average student and never knew my purpose in life. College helped me a lot to discover who I am, but my Crohn’s helped me become who I am. I had to get courage to overcome it. It helped me to speak up and speak my mind. I directed me where to go in my life because as we all know, a lot of what we do, we do tailored around the disease. When I got sick last year and then started doing research on IBD, again it moved me into a new direction. Here I am now, toting my wisdom and trying to help others.

I grew up alone with the disease. Back in the 80’s no one knew what IBD was. Worst of all, there weren’t many treatments for it. There was no internet so it was very hard to find people with the disease. All that I learned about my disease I learned through pamphlets from The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. They helped…but never really taught me about my disease. I grew up ignorant of what I have.

Now, things are different and websites like The Gutsy Generation exist. No one has to go at their disease alone anymore. All they have to do is reach out. The last paragraph of my post for TGG sums up my feelings and I will end this post with that paragraph:

“As I look back into the mirror, I can still see that 15-year-old. The lines are growing. The hair is changing. But I can see him in the eyes. I see the twinkle. I have made it 24 years with the disease. No matter what happens…I can live life. The disease hasn’t beaten me…and it never will. And that is the best advice I can give anyone….Never let it beat you…you are too strong.”

Follow Fridays is Back

Jun29

I realized this morning that since I changed domains from Tumblr to WordPress, I hadn’t done any of my follows on Fridays. I have been preoccupied with my blogs and haven’t focused much on them..so I apologise.

So, to restart the follows, I am going to highlight a website that I have been looking at a lot more lately. This one is http://www.wegohealth.com and it doesn’t just focus on IBD. The great thing about this site is that they cover almost any health condition out there. It is an interactive site, meaning there are groups where you can write and connect with other people. What is great is since a lot of people with IBD suffer from other ailments also, you can connect and get information from all your ailments on this one site. This site also has articles to read and they seem to highlight and talk about different diseases every month. If you are on Twitter, they can be found at @wegohealth and every Tuesday they run an interactive chat.

Another site that I think is really good is http://stopthinkingstartwriting.blogspot.com/ This one is written by a woman named Amanda. She, like so many others with a disease, is having a rough time. She has been undiagnosed now for almost 4 years but is a tough trooper and is still fighting. A lot of her symptoms point to IBD but as many of us know, sometimes it is just hard to pinpoint the area that is affected and causing the problems. Her blog is very well written and one day she will be a famous writer. For all you caring people out there, don’t be scared to reach out to Amanda if you think you can help or just want to lend some support. Too much support never hurt anyone.

Well, that is my picks for this week. Enjoy your weekend and stay safe this July 4th.