HAWMC Day 1 – Getting Started

HAWMC Day 1 – Getting Started

Welcome to our Third Annual Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge!

My "Chronically Mommy" blog was my third blog in a series of three. I began writing about my spiritual journey in my first blog because when I became really sick, I became more spiritual and was searching for myself and my own path in this world. Then I began to write more about my experiences as a woman with chronic pain and awaiting my shoulder replacement surgery in my second blog. And in "Chronically Mommy", I became a mommy first and a woman with chronic pain and joint disease second. They go hand in hand however. I thought other mothers out there would like to know they are not alone. Also, we went through the adoption process, and it is a grueling process by itself, add the threatening shadows that seem to hover over the whole experience--chronic illness, disability and chronic pain--and you add additional stress, fear and concern that a birth mother will never choose you or that your "condition" will make it impossible to ever be matched with that one child that was meant to be yours.  It was an extremely long and exhausting process, but we have a child and are the family we always wanted to be!


Every year I have wanted to get involved in HAWMC, but something has always gotten in the way--a shoulder replacement, a new baby or just the time it takes to be a mommy for a child in general, and a hip replacement. So I am a newbie to HAWMC! I have met so many people online since I began "Chronically Mommy" and have learned many tricks of the trade--being mommy and chronic!

I have always had a diary and a journal. Blogging has become just another way to journal for me. I like it better though because people can respond and make comments. When you write in your own journal, you have no criticism. If I ask a question, I get answers--sometimes many, many answers. If I learn something new and want to pass it on, I can blog about it, and I have then educated and spread awareness. And nowadays, I can press one button and the blog post link goes to multiple sites at once, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter so the information is even more widespread than when I first began!

I write about health topics as a Mommy because it is something that I know, that I experience and that I have the ability to share with others. I am an advocate. I am an activist. I want to share with the world what I know about being a Mom with chronic pain, disability, chronic illness, autoimmune arthritis, and other conditions. Even if someone reads my blog that doesn't have exactly the same diseases or conditions, I feel that I am able to reach anyone who shares a chronic illness, chronic pain or disabling condition. That is really the most important thing to me, to reach as many Chronic Mommies as I possibly can to help them to be, feel and live as well as possible!