I've Been Tagged by Linz!

I've been tagged by Linz to do a meme on Ten Reasons Why I Blog so here goes!

Ten Reasons Why I Blog:

1. To connect with others with chronic illness and the ones they love.

2. To encourage those living with chronic illness and those they love.

3. To share experiences in the world of CIDP. It's a difficult world to navigate and sharing information can be such a blessing to others.

4. To overcome my fear of appearing "weak" in the eyes of others. Blogging and sharing my journey is therapeutic in a way. Thanks to my special friends for helping me overcome this fear and get on with encouraging others.

5. To learn from others through their comments and feedback. I love hearing from others about their experiences, emotions, suggestions, etc.

6. To share my joy!

7. To share my journey.

8. To provide a place where I (and others) can let my hair down and be real. I love a blog where you can be authentic, but still hopeful.

9. I also blog to give information about my passion for creative communication. You can find out more about that here.

10. This is the biggest reason of all...to give HOPE to those dealing with adversity, whether it be an illness, financial struggles, personal struggles, etc. We all have struggles, but there's HOPE.

I'm tagging the following:

Encouragement from my heart

Write on the Edge

All Things Cherished

As Linz said, hopefully they have the spoons to respond! If not, please check out their blogs anyway and don't forget to stop by and say hi to Linz.

Many Blessings,
Kristen

Choose Joy

Leaving Target yesterday afternoon, I passed a woman getting into an electric wheelchair. You know the ones the larger stores provide for those with difficulty walking? Anyway, this woman used a cane and was visibly ill. Her face was puffy and moon-shaped, a face I know all too well as a side effect from steroids. She looked exhausted and disgusted to be sitting in this chair. A Target worker was explaining how to use the chair and the two women with her I assumed were her sisters by their similarities.

As I walked past, I clearly heard, "Stop and share with her." I almost laughed out loud and said,"No way!" to myself. "Absolutely not," and kept walking. As I exited Target I found myself immediately heading once again for the entrance.

"No way, God! This is just too embarrassing. I can't start a conversation with a total stranger!" Next thing I know I'm standing in front of this total stranger, my mouth flies open and out comes these words...

"I have to share something with you. I read a story online recently about a woman who had been homebound for several months with chronic illness. She was finally able to make a trip to Wal Mart, only if she used an electric wheelchair to get around the store. She awkwardly maneuvered this bulky chair up and down the aisles running into end caps, knocking over product and even hitting a few other shoppers! She was embarrassed at first and then she began to think about all the time she'd spent unable to leave the house. She was thrilled to be out and made a conscious choice to be joyful and leave embarrassment behind. She was going to enjoy the moment regardless of how many shelves or shoppers she ran into. Instead of getting flustered when she crashed, she started yelling, "Woo hoo!" and having a total blast!

"So," I told my new Target friend , "Enjoy this moment riding on your new wheels and when you hit something yell 'Woo hoo!'instead of being embarrassed."

She looked at me with big tears in her eyes and said a weak "Woo hoo!" and whispered "Thank you."

As I left Target, I could hear three voices yelling "Woo hoo!" and laughing as the woman ran into the end of an aisle.

Today, I choose joy. "Woo hoo!" How about you?

Joyfully,
Kristen

Survival and Support

I've been spending time lately on the CIDP foundation website. I've heard some of the most amazing stories of survival and I'm in awe of the strength of these chronic disease survivors. If you're stopping by my blog from the forum, welcome! Put your feet up, grab a cup of coffee, and feel free to leave me a comment to let me know you were here. There's no substitute for support and we're in this together!

In trying to answer the meme questions in my last post, I realized I truly am a survivor. I always thought of that as bragging, but I don't really care what people think anymore. (I'm wearing big girl panties today!) Here's why: I am a survivor. You're reading this blog, which means you're likely a survivor as well. There's not one ounce of pride in that statement. My strength is not my own. In no way is my survival cause for pride. In every way is my survival a statement of faith. Leaning into my faith and relying on the Lord is my only means of survival. That may sound cliche, but it comes from my heart. My hope is that you too are leaning into your faith for survival.

I've Been Tagged

It's official. I've been tagged by Alene over at Positively Alene

The rules are:

1. Write your own six-word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you'd like.

3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.

4. Tag five more blogs with links.

5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.


Here are six words/phrases that best depict who I am:
1. Passionate about Jesus!
2. Wife and Mommy
3. Hopeful
4. Real
5. Creative
6. Survivor

I'm tagging the following:

dawagners

sunjane

mjane

Final Post for Treatment Day

Turning in for the night, so this will be my final post today. I hope I've given enough information to those of you who requested it. As far as how I'm feeling right now, not bad. Tired, achy, and extremely sweaty. In fact, it's kind of gross! I'm headed for the shower and then to bed.

Many blessings to you!

Treatment Day Part 3

Just wanted to give a brief update on the side effects from today's infusion:

Racing heartbeat
Dizziness
Nausea
Aching joints
Slight headache

Sounds pathetic, but it's really not that bad. I'm so thankful for this medicine! I'll make one more post later tonight.

Part Two

I forgot to take my pre-meds which consist of Tagamet and Benadryl before Randy started the iv. She reminded me just a few minutes after we got started, so I took them a little late. My blood pressure was lower than usual when we started this time. I think it was around 94 over 60. Unusual for me. I didn't have a good vein other than my right antecubital (google "antecubital") so it was hard to type as we went along. We did the 10 gram bottle first and about half way through it stopped running in. Somehow the tubing got kinked and started leaking. It only took a second to fix it and we completed that bottle. We did one of the 20 gram bottles next and this one went in without any complications at all. The last 20 gram bottle went in a little slower in order to tytrate down toward the end of the infusion. Chris brought home lunch for me and about thirty minutes after I ate, we were done!

My stomach's a bit upset and I'm drowsy from the Benadryl so I'm going to rest until time to pick up the kids from school.

I'll post more later.