If you have a blog you will understand what I am talking about. There are lots of ups and downs of blogging. When I first started blogging I was concerned about my privacy and what if people knew who I really was? OMG, I am not going on stage in any sense of the word.
But blogging has been a great way to cope with my medical madness (say that three times fast - and then try to live it). I write about my thoughts, pains, hopes, dreams, medical (mis)adventures, and more. I also have 'met' hundreds or even thousands of people around the world who blog or otherwise have an online presence. They have become my friends. We support each other. We read each other's blogs and leave comments and thoughts. We live through each other's medical ups and downs. If someone doesn't post in their normal time frame, we wonder if they are okay.
People who we don't know and aren't going through medical stuff find our blogs and leave us messages. Sometimes they leave us spam in broken English, claiming to have the cure for cancer, or could I send them $10,000 so they could get their money from the estate of their Nigerian relative and will then share it with me. I also get links to purchase Viagra and other drugs online, as well as links to other shall we say 'interesting' websites. (Blogger has an antispam filter on its comments so those never get posted.) And I can always delete any comment I find offensive - its my blog so I have the power.
Sometimes I write about non medical things or things that are slightly medical related - like Broccoli last week or Betty Ford over the weekend. But usually I write about what has ticked me off, interested me, confused me (not hard to do), or my avoidance of my latest medical (mis)adventure. The only requirement that a blog topic must meet is that it interests me.
I also get people requesting to put feeds of my blog in different places. You can find my excerpts of my blog on Opposing Views in the Health Conditions section (Cancer subsection) and you can find it on Before Its News. Sometimes I even get it to import to my Facebook Notes but that doesn't always work thanks to advances in technology that broke that system last spring. I think it pops up in other places as well.
I even get people who want to write a guest post for me - um, no, this is my blog and I write it all. If there is a day when I don't write it, that would be a 'bad' thing. I would be medically incapacitated and my husband would be writing things for me which would only be bad news. So we will pretend that day will never come. This is often how cancer blogs end, the spouse or family member posts funeral arrangements or links to online obituaries.
I get people requesting me to write about a specific topic - I only do this if I am truly interested which I rarely am. I am not going to write about a cure for cancer that the pharmaceutical industry is trying to keep off the market so they can continue to make money. I am not going to write about a medical center far away. These have no interest to me and do not impact my medical roller coaster.
However, recently I was contacted and requested to blog about an upcoming documentary. I did give it some thought and will write about it. But not until tomorrow. You have to come back and find out what intrigued me enough to write about.
2 comments:
Oh, I can relate! (Not to the Nigerian requests for money, but the feeling of writing about personal stuff in such a public way.) BC bloggers help us BC 'sistahs' to navigate a medical nightmare while also realizing we're by no means alone. I also know that writing about the ins and outs and ups and downs of breast cancer helps educate people. And that's an awesome thing. Thank *you* for providing a bridge out of the BC abyss.
It cracks me up when people ask me to promote something they are selling. I work very hard on my blog, and why would I want to do that? Give them the fruits of my labor? I get that "can I write a guest post" too, they want to link back to something they are selling. Sometimes I do it, if it has benefit to my readers, or is for something I believe in.
I have an entire page of the blog that discusses what I will promote and what I won't but do they read it? No.... if it has anything to do with "awareness" or they are giving "proceeds to breast cancer charities" then absolutely not.
I got one today that was so egregious that I AM going to blog about it - and those people are not going to be happy.
I'll look forward to your post.
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