New blog post for the NICIAW
New blog post for Invisible Illness Awareness Week! Titled: Invisible Illness: Live it in silence? or speak up for awareness?
thelifeandtimesofagirlwithra.blogspot.com/2010/09/invisible-illness-live-it...
Awareness is the key
Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate and educate!
virtuallyabsorbed.blogspot.com/2010/09/30-things-about-my-invisible-illness...
30 Things about my illness
I'm really happy people are spreading more awareness! Check out my blog- joyeathome.blogspot.com/
Started Blogging This Week
Down the Rabbit Hole....and Into Chronic Illness.
I had an adverse reaction to the medication Levaquin, which affected my Peripheral Nervous System. I wanted this blog to be both educational about the dangers of Fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and also document what it is like to suddenly be afflicted with a chronic illness.
Invisible Illness Week: Love Simple
I just posted a new #iiwk10 blog post about Love Simple - please stop by and read at www.corleymay.com/blog. Thank you!
Wellness with a Side of Life, Please!
Please follow me on Twitter at @ArthritisAshley and add me on Facebook by searching Arthritis Ashley *and* Rheum to Grow! (both pages offer great resources on living with not only rheumatoid arthritis but other chronic illnesses!)
I live with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic daily systemic migraines, refractory celiac disease, general immunodeficiency, anxiety, multiple vitamin deficiencies, food allergies, maculopathy, slight hearing loss, and other chronic illnesses and autoimmune problems.
I work with the Mid Atlantic Region of the Arthritis Foundation and write a blog all about staying positive and living a positive healthful lifestyle of wellness! Please read it - Wellness with a Side of Life, Please - midatlanticarthritis.wordpress.com!
I've had RA since age 10 - I'm now 26 and want to spread awareness that we all don't "look" or "seem" sick but some of us are disabled nonetheless and just trying to live healthy, happy, normal, and productive lives nonetheless! Young people live with chronic illness, too! Please help spread awareness along with me!! 
- Ashley B
How I informed 300 people in my church
Most of you know me. My name is Vicki Glover. What some of you do not know is that I live everyday with 4 invisible illnesses. I suffer with frontal lobe seizures, arthritis in my spine, depression, and a chronic pain disorder called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in both of my arms, . Chronic meaning the pain never goes away and never will.
This next week is set aside to raise awareness not only for the diseases I suffer with but all Invisible Illnesses that anyone suffers with. September 13-19th is Invisible Illness Awareness Week.
Invisible illnesses are all around us everyday. They are not just the diseases I suffer with, but there are many more. Many suffer with depression, migraines, cancer, hearing loss, blindness, pain, lupus, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, spinal problems, crippling arthritis, and the list could go on. They say 1 in every 2 people suffer with some kind of invisible illness. Look around you. Around half of the people here today are suffering with at least one invisible illness. What makes them invisible is that the individual does not use a wheelchair, cane, or any other assistive devices to get by with their daily lives, but they still have a disability that limits their lives and how much they can do.
Many depend on the help of others to get through the bad days. I call my bad days flare-up days. Those are the days when I feel like my body is on fire and my pain level is way above a 10 and the pain medicine I take won’t touch the pain. Those are the days when I sleep a lot and depend on my family to help a lot. On my good days I tend to overdue things and I never learn so I end up back in my flare-up days again. Most people with a chronic disease has a tendency to do that.
Our biggest challenges are those around us. Most don’t understand what we are going through. So I want to try and help you understand a little from my point that might help you understand everyone that you see who is fighting an illness.
---We smile not because we are feeling better, but because we don’t want to look sad all the time. Don’t think just because we look happy the pain is gone. We are just hiding it well.
---If we park in a handicap parking spot and we don’t look handicap to you, think again. We may just have a disease or handicap you cannot see or we may be in a lot of pain. Offer us help instead of judging us. We would appreciate the help.
---If you come to our homes and it looks like a tornado has hit the place, it hasn’t. We spend the little time we do feel good doing the most important things first, which is usually things with our families. Housework will always be there, our families and children will not.
---Any help offered is greatly appreciated because energy is scarce.
---Don’t ask “how are you doing?” unless you really want to know.
---Don’t give advice on what might fix the illness. If there was a cure we would know by now, and we have tried just about everything that is a possible cure because really we don’t like living in pain.
---Don’t stop living your life just because we have to slow down ourselves. We want you to continue to have fun and enjoy life. We have just as much fun watching you have fun as we did having fun with you when we could. Just remember when we need to stop and rest, just let us without making us feel guilty.
---When we need to stop and take our medicine or stop to rest we need to right then. If we overdo things we don’t just get tired, we pay for it for days. Please understand.
---If we make plans to do something with you and have to change those plans at the last minute, we are sorry, but we have to listen to our bodies and stop when it tells us to. But please don’t stop inviting us because we still enjoy being with our friends and enjoying life.
---If you have questions about our illness, don’t be afraid to ask. We don’t mind answering questions so you understand. How will you learn without asking.
These are just some points I can make on behalf of myself and others that suffer with invisible illnesses. I know each illness is different and each person is different, so there is so much more to learn from each individual.
Reach out to those that are hurting and suffering. Like I said at the beginning I suffer with depression, which was brought on by the illnesses I deal with daily. Pain that never goes away will tire the body out, but it also tires the mind out. Some days you get so tired of fighting the pain that you want to give up. Depression is a big factor that faces almost everyone that has a chronic illness whether invisible or not.*Depression is 15-20% higher for the chronically ill than for
the average person Many times with the depression comes thoughts of suicide because the pain gets so severe you just want it to stop. 70% of suicides have uncontrollable physical pain as a factor
If depression does not get the best of you, the illness usually affects your family and your marriage. The divorce rate among the chronically ill is over 75 percent. That is a very high percentage. If you don’t end up in divorce, it still affects marriages in many other ways. Your spouse is afraid to touch you in many ways because they are afraid of hurting you. Lack of sleep keeps you both so tired to have much of a relationship. Financially your family starts hurting because of doctor appointment bills, medicine costs, gas for trips to doctors, and medical tests. You start feeling even more depressed because you see your family having to do things that you should be doing but are unable to. It is a vicious cycle that can eventually tear a family apart. Only strong families usually survive when a person is suffering with more than one illness and a lot of stress is put on the family.
Our strength has come from God to hold our family together. We have been through all and God is holding our hands and our family tight. I have accepted God has a purpose for my illnesses. I have had some ask me if I believe in healing because I have been sick for over 4 yrs. I believe that God can heal, if He wants to heal. Sometimes we are left in our illnesses to use for His glory and to be healed in heaven, and I believe that is my case here. We are all to take joy in our trials. They make us stronger. Some days I may not feel stronger physically, but God has a plan and I know He is working on me spiritually just as He is with everyone fighting an illness. I just ask that you pray for those you know that are fighting any illness, seen or not, and remember those this week especially fighting the invisible illnesses everywhere.
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National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week
http://www.invisibleillnesswee…
To increase awareness of invisible illness; that nearly 1 in 2 people in the US have a chronic illness and about 96% of it is invisible.
National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is held annually in September and is a worldwide effort to bring together people who live with invisible chronic illness and those who love them. A virtual conference in held at www.invisibleillnessweek.com and the blog is updated a few times a day during August and September. Bloggers are welcome to participate anytime, but are encouraged to unite efforts during August and September to increase awareness online and share their experiences as well as encouragement. A badge is available that says you are blogging during the actual awareness week. Organizations are encouraged to educate the general public, churches, healthcare professionals and government officials about the impact of living with a chronic illness that is not visually apparent. INSTRUCTIONS: Get the Badge 1. Right click on the badge to download 2. Link it back to this web site at this link: http://invisibleillnessweek.com 3. Then write your blog posting. 4. Come back to this web site OR invisibleillnessweek.com and let us know about your blog in the comments section. Tell us about it! Share your title, topic/description and link. When to blog 1. You can blog at any time as we want people to know about this week during any time of the year. However, here are some tips. 2. Please post a blog on SEPTEMBER 14, 2009. We hope to have hundreds of blogs participate on this day! 3. Each day September 1 through Sept 20th we will be choosing a blog to feature on the Invisible Illness Week Blog. You will get loads of exposure, and we hope to also inform, educate, and encourage others. A few ideas to write about * Remember that not all of your posts have to have the "it's so not fair" tone. Write your "best advice" to others who feel invalidated. How have you learned to get past the remarks people have made? * Don't forget families and what they also cope with when one of their members has an illness. And how is it being invisible easier/more difficult for them? For example, if Dad's illness is invisible, does your son have to cope with his friends wondering why his Dad never participates in the father/son baseball game? * Remember caregivers. Any thanks, thoughts? * Remember all the aspects of living with invisible illness. Being a parent, a spouse, an adult child (who is maybe a caregiver too), a neighbor, etc. * Don't forget about all the kids who have illness too! * Cancer can be considered an invisible illness, as are things like eating disorders, mental illness and the list goes on. * Got others? Share them! IMPORTANT: We hope to blow those Google Alerts apart on Sept 14th with blogs all over the internet posting about invisible illness issues. Remember that with most blogging programs you can even write it in advance and have your post published on September 8th. Can you commit for us to blogging on September 14th on a topic about illness or invisible illness? We want to keep track, so please let us know by signing up here at Bloggers Unite.
Making myself visible
9/18/10
by: Mlissabeth
I recently posted my "30 Things" on my blog at melissabeth.wordpress.com I have just started blogging again, and hope to keep up with it more often. I want to inspire others to keep on keeping on...
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