Great Blogs I have read this week

 
Today is the final prompt of RABlog week 2017.  Today I am responding to the prompt:Great Blogs I have read this week –

Great Blogs I have read this week – RABlog week is, at its heart, a way for bloggers to connect. Tell others about the great blogs you have read over the week. Perhaps you have found a gem from a blogger you did not know before or maybe one of your friends shared special insight. Give the high five in print to another blogger or two who participated in 2017 RABlog week.

 There have been so many terrific blogs this week.  Each blogger has added a unique voice to our week.  I started the week trying to read and post about each of them on our Facebook page.  But I just could not keep up.   So I will have missed many that deserve mention.  But for each day these are the favorites I was able to read this week:

Day 1 Mental Health –

 
Brenda (Trevor gave up the pen this week) from Brenda’s Brainstorm and Trevor in (Tale of Mental Health) gave us a glimpse into Brenda’s diagnosis and treatment of a Brain Tumor, RA and a breast ultrasound that revealed scar tissue.  Brenda reminds us that mental health is interconnected to our entire body.

Tien Sydnor-Campbell is a new blogger with us this year.  Her blog post (In sickness and in health… a #Truestory) calls her husband a real-life superhero and in the process reminds us of how much a spouse / partner in this fight can mean for us.  

Stephanie Aleite returns to RABlog week with a powerful blog (Mental Health w/ RA).  In it Stephanie gives us three tips for maintaining mental health with a Rheumatic condition.  Her point number 3.  “Promise yourself to wake up with a new attitude tomorrow” was important for me to hear.

Linda Perkins has blogged with us all three years of Blog week and her opening day blog (#RABlog Week: Managing Your Emotions with RA) was remarkable.  My favorite advice from her blog was “It feels good to give, even in small ways”.  Yes it does.

Day 2 Tips and tricks –

 
Cathy is a new blogger with us this year, at Arthritis Wisdom gave us a wonderful blog titled (My Number One Household Hack).  I especially love the quote from Bruce Lee:  “It is not the daily increase but daily decrease.  Hack away at the unessential” that she used in her blog about using a robot vacuum.

J.G. Chayko author of The Old Lady in My Bones resurrected one of my favorite blogs of hers for this prompt.  Every time I stumble across (There will be Days like This) I am thrilled.  As a man who never met an adjective he did not like (or use) I am in awe of J.G.’s writing in this blog.   My message never comes together like this.

Another new blogger with us this year is Dr. Mary Ann Wilmarth and her blog (Have you ever lost your voice) brought a new dimension to my thinking about this prompt.  It also helped me understand Sjogren’s syndrome better.

Day 3 Partners –

 
Debra Thorpe at SicKnitter always writes great blogs and her blog (It’s great to be Loved by a Gear Head) made me chuckle because her husband reminds me of well, me.  Hey anyone who puts a star trek reference in her blog gets a mention on the best blogs.  Oh and if you are ever interested in knitting, the things Debra produces are amazing.

Marianna Paulson takes the topic and plays with the words to make a truly inventive wonderful blog (#538 – #RABlogWeek: Day 3 – Partners).   What a terrifically creative way to explore the prompt.

Sam from Medical Musings provided a response to each prompt this week and it is difficult to say one is better than another.  But my favorite of the week is her day 3 post (Thank you Sweetheart).  Her opening words “Behind every great man is a great woman, or so the saying goes.  Let’s flip that on its head a little. Behind this chronically ill wife is an amazing husband” is a wonderful way to start a blog and it just kept getting better as I read it.

Day 4 Hobbies –

 
PsA mermaid is a brand new blogger (she organized her blog for this event) this year and she wrote a wonderful piece titled (Thursday, September 28, 2017).  The last words of her blog are “hobby with mindful aplomb, spoonies!”  Good advice for all.

I adore the simplicity of Cathy Kramer’s post about Hobbies.  Her blog (RA Blog Week: Hobbies) is a gem.  The writing is descriptive yet efficient.   I get the sense of her as a real person.  Cathy is a terrific blogger and her posts all week were wonderful.  She is someone who has always been on my reading list.  Besides, she likes bicycling.

Kat Elton makes the case for people with RA having hobbies in her terrific blog (Why Hobbies Are Important When You Live With Rheumatoid Arthritis).  One of my favorite parts of this blog is the picture of the rocks.

Pollyanna Penguin is also on my constant reading list.  Her blog about (Hobbies) is both informative and humorous.  Her comment about learning to sew “fabric that I think was part of the ‘Daisy suit’ I had when I was four … and I can’t have been much more than four when I was sewing that picture” made me smile.  I can almost imagine my granddaughter working on something like that.

Wild Card 1 – Overlap

 
Judy- from United Advocate also new to RABlog week this year gives us a good sense of the overlap of competing and complimentary conditions in her life using pictures.  Her blog “Overlap #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumaticDiseases #Hypertension, #Fatigue” reminds us of what many of us face when we have RA.

Wild Card 2 – New Doctors

 
If you have not read Lene Andersen’s blog (How to Train Your Rheumatologist in Six Easy Steps) you are missing out.  You must go and take a look.  It is so fun.

Nicole at IPerCyst wrote the post (How to Find the Right Doctor for You) to give us practical tips for how to find the right doctor.  Her last paragraph starts with the sentence “I would go door to door to tell the world if I could: your relationship with your doctor is a partnership.”  Nicole makes the point very well in this post.

Wild Card – Everything Else.

 
For those of us in the United States the recertification of Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is very important.  This week Kirsten highlighted the important need in the blog (CHIP Needs Our Help).  It is difficult to believe we would need to be concerned about continuation of this bipartisan legislation.  But in this world when precious little is getting through Congress without a disagreement, Kirsten makes a strong case for recertification.

I know I missed so many bloggers in my wrap up that I have read and always enjoy.   I just do not have space in this blog to mention everyone that contributed so much this week.  Thank you to each of you for participating this year.  I hope each of you had a great time blogging with us and I hope to see you all next year.

rick

-30-