3000th blog post

My blog post is not about numbers or volume or anything like that but recently I realized I was nearing 3000 blog posts. Today is number 3000. My blog started June 2, 2007, 3089 days or 8 years, 5 months, 14 days ago.

I set out blogging as a way to vent my feelings and keep my friends and family updated through breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, which would be a year or so and then I would return to my 'new normal'.

It didn't work out that way. Not many of my local friends or family read my blog. I am still working on that 'new normal' (and if anyone ever finds it, please let me know where it is), and my health still sucks, even though there have been no new cancer misadventures.

I still benefit from my nearly daily blogging. It allows me a way vent my feelings on my sub-par health which is really what I need. I also like to think my so called 'words of wisdom' have helped others deal with breast cancer and other not so fun medical crap.

Along the way I have also met many wonderful people online who are dealing with their own medical crap and they have become friends, although we have not nor do I think we ever will meet in person. But we are friends. And as a result I have a bunch of greatly appreciated supporters when I go through my own bumps in the health roller coaster.

I think I will keep blogging, I see no reason to stop as long as it continues to help me.

Why read blogs anyway?

Back in the early 2000s, I worked for a larger non-profit in Boston. One of the staff attorneys spent a lot of time reading these things he called 'web logs' that were online. Now I had heard of them but never thought much of them. They were one of the first internet fads...

Then I started writing one, because it helped me cope. All bloggers ask themselves the question once in a while 'why the hell am I still blogging?' We all have our reasons. Some of us stop blogging or our blogs change topic completely but we keep writing. And some of us still blog about the same damn things because we have no lives I guess.

Now the question becomes why do readers read these blogs anyway? Especially if they contain all sorts of useless and senseless crap that only makes sense to me the writer? And even more especially if its about cancer, that lovely ailment?

Someone is finally taking the time to quantify and ask questions about this. As you can see in the little box to the right ==> where it says:  "Blog Impact Survey - til 4/30/15" in big bold letters. There is a link to a survey because another blogger, Rebecca Hogue, got smart. 

She is conducting a study on how breast cancer blogs are impacting people who read them. She put together a survey that takes about 5 minutes to complete. (She says 5 minutes but I took it myself and think its probably more like 3 minutes or if you read fast, maybe only 2 minutes.) She is most interested in the final question (and I'm not tell you what it is - you have to take the survey to find out). Here's the link if you can't move your mouse far enough over to the right . 

You don't have to complete it today as it is open until the end of the month. I will probably even remind you in the future because I know I can't remember anything for mroe than a nano-second anyway.

Can I just say "please" one more time? It would really be nice if we knew why people read our blogs and if they help anyone or if we are just senselessly babbling our way through our illnesses? 

Thank you. 

Not for me

I frequently get requests on my blog to blog about something else, besides me and my ailments. I usually decline because they are not the focus of my blog - which can be summed up as things that interest me or annoy me. (How's that for a bit of selfishness?) I have even updated my home page with a note that I will not blog about other people's  issues. No one reads that. I still get requests.

Yesterday I got a request:

"My name is Mxxxx. I am an intern with Darna & Company. We have a new product in the market called the NoMoNausea band. This band uses peppermint aroma therapy and acupressure to combat nausea and vomiting. We have joined with the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida to help patients going through treatment. For every band purchased in the month of October, a patient at the cancer center will receive one free of charge. Please visit our website, nomonausea.com, and amazon for more information. To receive $1 off use the coupon code: SAVBOOBS. We hope that this band will bring relief to the nausea and vomiting from the trauma of the chemotherapy treatment. Please share our information with others that deal with nausea and vomiting. Thank you for your time."

At first I just ignored it - because I felt it was a run on sentence/paragraph with typos which had clearly been cut and pasted from another blog. Then I decided it really ticked me off:

1. The coupon code is offensive.
2. From the coupon code and I can deduce that it is a pink project
3. Wrist bands for breast cancer patients? A lymphedema no-no.
4. Why should I care about a cancer center in Florida?

I admit that in the past I have used wrist bands and not thought much about the wrist band/lymphedema connection. Now I can no longer wear bracelets, even loose ones, because of lymphedema and arthritis/tendonitis, so why would I want a wrist band which puts pressure on my wrist? I can feel my arm swelling at the very thought.

So this clearly became a topic that annoyed me to no end. I do not recommend this product at all. They need a better marketing plan. Hey, I'm a marketing consultant, maybe they should  hire me.

The important things about blogging

This sort of goes back to why I blog. I blog about what I want to, what appeals to me, the mood I'm in, how I am feeling, or whatever is on my mind. When I started blogging I never dreamed I would be blogging for so long but I am.

I also follow many other blogs, mostly health related but some are about gardening, or cooking, or just writing. Its nice to know there are other bloggers out there. And its nice to know they like to read my blog too. And other people read my blog, too. The blogosphere is sort of a little club where we all have bonds through our health ailments. So somewhere in me I get a little warm fuzzy feeling about being in with the cool kids in high school again.

And then I get nominated for being one of the best breast cancer or whatever blogs. Yesterday I found a link for the best 150 breast cancer blogs and a little thing niggled inside me that I wanted to belong again. I did find my blog on the list. I was happy. Sort of. It was only someone else's opinion.

And then I decided I don't really care anymore. Its not what other people think about me that's important. It sort of goes back to wanting to be the cool kid again. I'm not here for other people's opinions. I write to express my thoughts and deal with my health issues.

Thoughts on blogging

Now that I have been in the blogging business for nearly five years, it is time to sit back and moment and think for a bit. When I started blogging it was to keep people informed of my medical adventures with breast cancer so I wouldn't get all those phone calls and go through the latest tidbits from my most recent 'episode' and then possibly get asked questions that I might not be ready to answer.  But my friends and family didn't really become blog readers.Well there are a few that read my blog regularly and fewer now. (They don't follow directions very well I guess.)

So I got through breast cancer treatment and I was supposed to be a healthy person again living in 'my new normal' whatever that was and then supposedly I would stop blogging, go back to work full time, and blah, blah, blah. But we all know that's not how life works, that being a healthy person thing didn't really start up again. First I had gall stones and then my gall bladder out. Then my back started to hurt. Some where in there I sprained my ankle, got tennis elbow, and fell on my knee, the bursitis in my hip never really went away -in fact its doing quite 'well' from its point of view. I went on a few million more doctor appointments and kept blogging.

And my audience kept growing. I really don't know who all you people are who read my blog. I know there are readers as Google Analytics don't lie. I can say hi to Mary in France who is one person I know who has read my blog almost daily since its start. I can say hi to Robin in Cambridge who I think is a fairly regular reader, except when she is off on one of her vacations - a perk of retirement. My mother used to read my blog often but has switched to following me on Facebook. My sister in law reads it from time to time and then tells my brother when he needs to read it - but he sometimes just calls me instead. Leah reads it sometimes as well. I have a relatively new but fairly regular reader from CTCA. A few other people I know from elsewhere tell me sometimes they did read my blog for the first time in a while.

But who the hell are all the rest of  you? I have no idea. But thank you. I like all of you. Well most of you. The people who leave me information on the cures for cancer if I just visit their website, you can skip my blog, thanks.

Blogging has taken a life of its own. If I didn't blog every morning, what would I do instead? I have no idea at this point.