Patients for a Moment: One More Year
I asked in the call for submissions for this edition of Patients For a Moment, “Is a diagnosiversary or birthday something to celebrate, or more of a sad thing, or both [when considering another year as a chronic patient]?”
And you answered…
With mixed emotions…
Leslie recently marked “A Very Rheumy Anniversary“, three years since her lupus and rheumatoid arthritis diagnoses. She wonders what exactly she should be celebrating…until she looks back at how far she has come in blogging her way through her chronic conditions.
Jamie also considers the positives and negatives about the anniversaries which made her a chronic patient, in her post, “Diagnosiversary“.
With a heavy heart…
Kitty finds it difficult to post anything serious in February and March, the months that brought on the acute illness soon followed by CFS/ME three years ago. But now it is April, and she gives us “A proper post that’s not about music or food“.
With moments of acceptance and hope…
Nicole acknowledges that type 1 diabetes has shaped her world over the past (almost) twenty-nine years and has allowed her to see the kindness of others in “What’s to Celebrate?“.
Kat sees victory for each year that she escapes ill effects from her dangerous latex allergy in “What Does Another Year Mean?“. Meanwhile the other conditions she lives with are so ingrained into her daily routine that she hardly takes notice of another year passing.
Phylor remembers what she ate, or what the weather was like, when symptoms first arose signaling chronic conditions in “My painaversary“. What really touched me is how she approaches each year’s end with the hope that one of her conditions will get easier in the coming year.
***
One more thing! Selena is a younger adult survivor of leukemia, and as such, she is trying to raise awareness of Livestrong‘s Young Adult Alliance by holding a comment-a-thon on April 22. She hopes to break a world record for most comments in one day for cancer-related blog posts. Please visit on Friday and comment away! What a way to both celebrate life, and to educate others about the needs of young adult cancer patients.
Posted on April 20, 2011, in Health, Writing. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Thanks for being the host! Great introductions to the entries. I’m looking forward to reading what other folks have written.
great edition rachel, and what a great theme too, very thought-provoking. the comment record on friday sounds fabulous too, must make a note to drop by selena’s blog! x
This would have been an apt subject for me- sorry I missed it this round! Great reading everyone’s posts- thanks for hosting!
Great PFAM edition! Thanks so much for hosting!
So, for days I had this post written in my mind all about lifelong illness and what it felt like to get the “right” diagnoses at last…and didn’t pull it together in time. Great collection here, though, and great idea for a prompt! Thanks for doing this!
What a great theme. And a very moving collection of posts. thank you!