The Beginning of the Blog
I started this blog on February 16, 2006--20 years ago this week! Wow, that's hard to believe. In a couple of weeks, on March 1, I will hit the 24th anniversary of becoming ill. I actually started an "online journal" on Live Journal even earlier, in April 2003, just a year after I first got sick, but I don't think anyone ever read that!
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| My family in 2006 - I was taller than my sons! |
My first blog post here was Our Approach to Living with Chronic Illness, with a little background about us and the way we live. It's interesting to me that way back then, I was referring to our "new normal" (the title I gave my book 14 years later!), to finding joy in every day, and balancing hope and acceptance--all topics I write about here on the blog often.
Ironically, my second post, Is It the Weather?, was about how the weather can affect my physical symptoms and condition and how frustrating that is since I can't do anything about it. I am currently in the midst of a weeks-long relapse that I am certain is due, at least in part, to this nonstop cold, gloomy, overcast winter we're enduring! Last Friday, I suddenly felt good again and my aches had disappeared (just as I describe in this 20-year-old post). As I wondered aloud what caused the sudden shift, my husband pointed to the blue sky. It's still just as discouraging!
My very first Weekly Inspiration post (a feature I kept up from 2006 to 2024), Weekly Inspiration: The Power of Hope was about a book that is still very important to me, The Anatomy of Hope by Dr. Jerome Groopman, MD. In fact, when my husband was recently diagnosed with cancer, I pulled the book off my shelf and gave it to him to read.
Top Blog Posts
I'm not sure whether the analytics on Blogger (this platform) go all the way back to 2006, but it says I have posted 1,781 posts, with almost 3 million views.
The most popular blog posts (most views at the top) during that time have been:
- Heart Rate and Post-Exertional Crashes in ME/CFS
- Orthostatic Intolerance and ME/CFS
- Vitamin B12 and ME/CFS
- Treating ME/CFS Sleep Dysfunction (though I would recommend this updated post on the topic from 2023 instead).
- Imunovir and Inosine for Treating ME/CFS
- The Methylation Cycle: Central to ME/CFS
- Low-Dose Naltrexone Treatment for ME/CFS
- Immune System Abnormalities in ME/CFS
- Effective Treatments for ME/CFS (this link goes to the tabbed page at the top of my blog, which is more up-to-date than the original blog post).
As you can see, all of the top 10 posts have to do with treating ME/CFS (and long-COVID, added since 2020), something all of us patients are always eager to learn more about. That's been my focus more recently, too, as I've had less time for blogging, though I greatly enjoyed writing about emotional coping, inspiration, and TV and movie reviews here for many years.
YouTube Channel
This week also marks the 5th anniversary of my YouTube channel, started on February 19, 2001 (apparently, I like to start big new projects in February!). There is a long playlist of videos there on Living with Chronic Illness, though my channel also includes lots of videos on books & reading, travel, and the outdoors. The chronic illness playlist includes videos on treating ME/CFS and long-COVID, chronic illness vlogs showing what my daily life is like, inspirational topics, chapters from my book, and more.
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| Our family now (we're expanding!) |
Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog these past 20 years and all those who commented on my posts and interacted with me. I developed some wonderful relationships through this blog. That's what's made all this hard work worthwhile!
When did you start visiting my blog?
How long have you been sick?
How has my blog been helpful to you over the years?
Let me know in the comments below.
