New to SharingOurDays -- The Daily Warrior (Lou Gehrig's Disease)

Hi Y'all!

I have had some requests lately for more blogs from people with ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease. They are hard to find, but here is a good one from Tammy.

http://mylifeasawarrior.blogspot.com/

Tammy's profile:
Name:Tammy
Location:Northern California, United States
I'm a 45yr. old, newly married woman on the front lines fighting ALS(www.alsa.org). Life is good and I have won many battles but I need to win the war! This is my life as a proud warrior that has beat the odds with humor, faith and love. I have survived 16 years with much more to come.

"The Daily Warrior" is full of strength and beauty. Please check it out.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

We're back!

Hi Ya'll!

Sorry there haven't been any new posts for the last week. My job has had a particularly intense week and SharingOurDays has suffered for it. I think everything is back on track now, though, and we should be back to daily posts.

Thanks for sticking with us! More tomorrow.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

New to SharingOurDays -- Appendix Cancer Survivor's Blog (Cancer)

Hi Y'all!

Have you ever even heard of someone with appendix cancer? Apparently it is very rare. Carolyn's blog is about her experience with appendix cancer.

http://appendix-cancer.blogspot.com/index.html

Check out the excerpt below, and visit her blog. It will be worth your time.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net



This excerpt is from Monday, January 15, 2007...

Life as a Cancer Patient
When I left the hospital after my appendectomy, I began my life as a cancer patient. I wasn't ready yet to use the term survivor, though I'd been told everyone alive with a cancer diagnosis was now termed a survivor. To me, a survivor was someone who was still alive 5 years later, or who had at least completed treatment. I had a long way to go.

I remember several things about my transition to life as a cancer patient. I remember waking up mornings and for an instant my morning would be normal. Then, once I was more fully awake, I remembered that my world had changed, it wasn't a normal morning. "Normal" was gone, I had cancer.I remember feeling so out of place in an oncology office at first, I felt I didn't belong there. I looked around the oncology office waiting room and saw people who had lost their hair, who were very thin, who looked ill. Was I one of them? I felt a mistake must have been made. I felt great, I felt healthy. I wanted to leave and go back to my normal life. But normal was gone.

I remember hardest part; seeing the pain my diagnosis caused my husband, my kids, my parents, my best friend, my sisters, my in-laws. And I couldn't make it better, I couldn't change it. My best friend summed it up best. She called me one day and said she just wanted to hear the dishwasher run. She said she wanted our normal back. She wanted our lives to be the way they were before I had a cancer diagnosis. She said she had been home contemplating my diagnosis and had heard the dishwasher run, and for a minute she felt everything was normal again, everything was the way it was supposed to be. She'd stood and just listened to the dishwasher and remembered normal. Normal. I mourned the loss of the normal life I had taken for granted. Life had changed so rapidly and so unexpectedly. Would life ever be normal again?

New to SharingOurDays -- Cheeky Librarian (Cancer)

Hi Y'all!

Teresa alerted me to her blog for those with oral, head and neck cancer.

http://cheekylibrarian.blogspot.com/

I'm so glad she did because it is well written and shares a lot. Check it out!

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

New to SharingOurDays -- The Pink Factor (Cancer)

Hi Y'all!

This is definitely something new for SharingOurDays. SusieQ has apparently been blogging for nearly a year, but wasn't writing about illness because she was just diagnosed with ovarian cancer last month. The blog provides an important portrait of someone before and after being diagnosed with an ongoing health condition.

SusieQ strikes me as brave and optimistic. Please check her out.

http://thepinkfactor.blogspot.com/

Take care.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

Update -- Ellie Skees (Children)

Hi Y'all!

Below is an update from Ellie Skees, the beautiful eight-year-old girl in Orlando with cancer. It is an excerpt from yesterday's entry. Check out the whole thing (with some great pictures) at http://ellieskees.blogspot.com/

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net


Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Photos!

Today is pretty much a quiet day for Ellie. She had a difficult night. She threw up once in the middle of the night and had some severe leg pain. The nurse came in an gave Ellie something to help her sleep, so the rest of the night was un-eventful. Last night the realization hit us that one of the anti-nausea medications is a steriod which always makes Ellie extremely hyper. She appears to be doing great...until the crash at the end of the day. Still, the benefits outway the side-effects of this drug, so there's not much to do but be aware of it. It's very tricky because it's hard to keep her from overdoing it when she appears to feel so well. The energy is a false energy that tries to just burn up instead of going back into Ellie's body for healing. So today we had a little talk, and thankfully Ellie is a very reasonable and logical little girl. As we were talking, her legs were boucing and her hands were moving constantly. Of her own accord, Ellie began doing some deep breathing (the way that we do for pain control...also to help Ethan "get his control back") and her limbs became still. She really seemed to grasp the concept. Putting it into practice on a moment to moment basis all day long (when she's trying to zoom her IV pole up and down the hall) is a little tougher, however...

New to SharingOurDays -- traci-jerseygirl (Breast Cancer)

Hi Y'all!

We haven't added a breast cancer blog in a while and this is a good one:

http://traci-jerseygirl.blogspot.com/

Traci has written an awful lot about her experience with breast cancer (as well as her mother's experience with it). It is a good skim for someone who does not have cancer, and a must-read for anyone who has cancer of just about any kind.

Take care.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

New to SharingOurDays -- Never Give Up (Lou Gherig's Disease)

Hi Y'all!

Here's the first post in a new category for SharingOurDays -- Lou Gherig's Disease. Powerful stuff and interesting to read. Bill seems to have an approach to life that could benefit all of us.

http://billsims.spaces.live.com/ -- excerpt below

Take care.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate and Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net


This excerpt is from January 4:

Random Observations

A few observations and other things I've learned sinceI became ill.

• People are much kinder than I ever imagined. There have been so many acts of kindness bestowed on me by friends and complete strangers that I can't begin to list them all.
• Most people talk too much and listen far too little, including me before I lost my voice.
• It's amazing what you can learn to do with your toes, and your nose, once you lose the use of your hands.
• Itches, even things that itch terribly, will go away on their own given enough time.
• I wish I'd bought my Select Comfort Sleep Number bed years ago.
• Your bowels aren't controlled by motor neurons.
• Having good disability coverage is much more important than having life insurance.
• I would rather have my arms and legs cut off than lose the ability to speak, seriously!
• I'm told that brushing someone else's teeth is incredibly difficult.
• Wiping someone else's behind is an act of love.
• Your head is much harder and stronger than you think.
• Your tongue does a heck of a lot more than just taste food.
• Not a day goes by that I don't see the hand of God working in my life, I just wasn't paying attention before I got ill.

New to SharingOurDays -- Notes from an Alzheimer's Caregiver

Hi Y'all!

After a request from a reader for Alzheimer's blogs, I searched and searched for one that I thought would make sense for SharingOurDays. Man, it was tough. I finally found "Notes from an Alzheimer's Caregiver" at http://alzheimersnotes.blogspot.com/.

You should definitely check it out. And please let me know if you know of any others.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

New to SharingOurDays -- Diary of My Battle with Cancer

Hi Y'all!

Check out "Diary of My Battle with Cancer" at http://donnewitt.blogspot.com/

This will particularly appeal to readers who are more Christian than others, but has value for pretty much anyone. Don is a pastor in New Zealand and has an interesting perspective. It reminds me, by the way, that I'm having a hard time finding blogs from folks of other religious persuasions, or even other races. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

Happy New Year!

Hi Y'all!

I'd like to start the new year by thanking everyone who reads the site on a regular basis, and everyone who has a blog listed here. I have learned amazing things in the last couple of months, since starting SharingOurDays. And it has amazed me that people visit the site from all over the world, every day.

Very slowly, we are starting to build an audience, so I'm going to keep scouring the Web for blogs that I think we will find interesting. Please continue to post or e-mail me (which happens more often, oddly) any time you have suggestions for improving the site, or for blogs that should be added.

Thank you for your time and interest. Good luck in your journey. Thanks for sharing.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate & Founder, SharingOurDays.com
www.SharingOurDays.com
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
seanspence@earthlink.net