Patients for a Moment #10
Wednesday, October 21 2009
I’ve had a lot of fun reading the last several editions of PFAM – especially since I didn’t have to compile them. I find I can guess who reads the various hosting blogs by what posts they include, and it’s been interesting to discover new patient blogs through the hosts’ work. The different hosts are providing a valuable service by bringing new bloggers into the conversation – so thanks to everyone!
Despite all that, I still feel obliged to host the occasional edition here, and now that time has come. So I present you with the Tenth Edition of Patients for a Moment – and first up are posts from the kindly folks who hosted previous editions:
Steve at Adventures of a Funky Heart blogs about Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics – specifically taking on inflated estimates of congenital heart defects used to promote the disease as a “cause”. CCFA does the same thing with Crohn’s and UC, and I find it rather shameful.
Leslie at Getting Closer To Myself regales us with her Adventures in the ER and MPU, about spending three days in the hospital. Leslie also discusses her first experience with bowel prep in this post – welcome to the club! Her post concludes with some grisly photos of the carnage on her arms.
Sara at The Single Gal’s Guide to RA submits a post in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month: “What, because having RA isn’t enough?” As someone who has also been diagnosed as potentially having colon cancer (nope) and possibly having skin cancer (and nope), I can tell you exactly how I would feel about getting cancer: smug. Because then I could explain my idiosyncratic behavior and unusual needs with three words: “I have cancer”. No more explaining what Crohn’s is, yes it’s incurable, no it’s not contagious, no I didn’t get it from gerbiling, and so on. Just three words: “I have cancer”, and done. But I can see how cancer would scare most people.
Kairol at Everything Changes asks, “How has your employer handled your illness?” This is a fraught topic for nearly all people with chronic illness, and I know in my case that I’ve lost at least two jobs partly or mostly because of my illness. Of course, I can’t prove it, so I’m SOL.
Next we have a couple of posts written by doc-bloggers, which I think are particularly helpful to patients:
Dr. Rob at Musings of a Distractible Mind writes about breaking up with patients; it’s an interesting read for us patients, to understand how a dysfunctional doctor-patient relationship looks from inside the rubber glove.
Shadowfax (also a doc) at Movin’ Meat pleads, “Oh, please don’t ask me that!” The question he doesn’t want to hear is one that keeps a lot of patietnts occupied in the wee hours of the morning: “What does it all mean?” Turns out he doesn’t know, either.
And back to patients:
Jenny at ChronicBabe suggests a song (or 21) to help you sleep. I don’t know what it says about me that I haven’t heard of 1/3rd of the artists on her list, but I can tell you that for a long time Paul Simon’s Rhythm of the Saints was almost a sure-thing for getting me to sleep. It’s a great album, but oh-so relaxing.
Diana at Somebody Heal Me writes about a new book which “posits the idea that people who hold their feelings in and don’t assert themselve” are more likely to get sick. Diana correctly identifies this as yet another way to blame sick people for their illnesses. That makes me angry and I’d like to beat the snot out of the authors. (Am I cured? No? Some theory that turned out to be.)
Barbara at In Sickness and In Health (where have I heard that phrase recently?) posts a vivid response to her flaring pain. It’s an intense post – if it were any longer, I would need to chew Tylenol just to get through it.
Rachel at Tales of My Thirties describes her morning routine, and explains how careful preparation in the morning can get her out the door feeling great.
Kelly at RA Warrior blogs about Celebrities and Rheumatoid Arthritis – and suggests RA patients should be their own ‘celebrity’ advocates. (It might make Kelly feel better to know that I didn’t recognize “Camryn Manheim” until I googled her.)
Jill at The Unnecesarean discusses doctors’ rationale for performing so many C-sections: basically, ’she needs it because we say she needs it’.
Lisa at Brass and Ivory discusses Different Medications for Different Folks, which will be most interesting to other RA patients – though the challenges of a drug regimen change will resonate with any chronically ill person.
And… that’s it for this edition – thanks to all the great bloggers who submitted posts. We are well on our way to making this an invaluable institution in the patient and medical blogging community.
The next edition – November 4th – will be hosted by Kairol at Everything Changes. Also, I’m still looking for future hosts, so email me if you would be interested. Thanks!
Oh, boy, another edition of Patients for the Moment! It’s going to be a GOOD day!
Thanks for starting this collection and hosting, Duncan! This is one of the most interesting collections I have found!
Thanks for your finesse, Duncan! You make my experiences sound much more glamorous than they were. And thanks for hosting!
Another fine job. You did a good thing when you decided to do this blog carnival.