'Jeanne's Endo Blog': Let's Have One More Hand For Sandy Of Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease!

Is it my birthday?

You may have seen a couple of posts ago that Sandy of Fighting Fatigue kindly wrote an entire blog post promoting our:

Endometriosis Awareness Petition

Well, Sandy has also posted the endometriosis petition on her other blog:

IC Disease

I am a long time follower of Sandy's fantastic blogs. Having fibromyalgia and interstitial cystitis myself, I found her blogs early in my blogging days and promply added them both to my blogroll. Pssst! Go check out Sandy's great blogs!

I deeply appreciate Sandy's help in promoting the endometriosis petition on both of her blogs.

Oh, and did I mention that she's even plugging the petition on Facebook?

Thank you, Sandy!!!!

Related link:

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 'Jeanne's Endo Blog': Sandy From Fighting Fatigue Has The Endometriosis Awareness Month Spirit!!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

THANK YOU For The Blog Giveaway Prizes From 'Twin Peas', 'The Girl Revolution', and 'Shaping Youth'!!

Gratitude Moment:

Recently, I was a winner of multiple blog giveaways. I'm behind schedule on publicly thanking people for the wonderful prizes I won.

The first blog giveaway contest I ever entered... I won! It was Kelly Damron's blog: Twin Peas Blog and Podcast. I had never entered a blog giveaway contest before and this particular contest was entered simply by posting a comment on Kelly's blog post about the contest. I was randomly picked as the winner of a book called Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus.



If it weren't for Kelly, I never would have known about this wonderful book. It's a beautiful book about hope, strength, and love.

Kelly Damron

I liked the book so much that I gave my friend Alicia a copy. She posted it on her blog and many of her readers commented that they were already familiar with this great book. Apparently it's a classic but it's thanks to Kelly that I discovered it!

Thank you, Kelly!

Tracee Sioux recently launched The Girl Revolution (formerly called Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me). This was a huge launch featuring a blog giveaway contest with 25 different prizes!

I had just won the book from Kelly when I entered Tracee's contests.

Tracee Sioux

The selection of winners was done randomly using a random.org program. I had diligently followed the instructions for entering all 25 contests. I blogged, tweeted, posted on Facebook, posted comments, etc. Since a large number of other people did the same, I didn't get my hopes up about winning anything.

Out of the 25 contest prizes, I won 4 of them!

Here's what I won!

"Precious Girls Club"

"Choosing Me Before We" book by Christine Arylo

"ProBlogger" book by Darren Rowse & Chris Garrett

"Packaging Girlhood" book by Sharon Lamb, Ed.D. and Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D.

Amy Jussel

This last prize was provided for Tracee's blog giveaway by Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth.

Amy shipped my prize directly to me and I just got it on Saturday! It's fun to open my mailbox and see something other than medical bills. :)

Seriously, this book looks amazing and I'm looking forward to reading it!

Since Tracee knew I already had the ProBlogger book, she kindly offered for me to select a friend to give it to so she can ship it directly to that person and save me shipping. (Thanks, Tracee)!

I asked my blogger friend Jannie Funster if she'd be interested in the ProBlogger book by Darren Rowse & Chris Garrett. She said yes. :) So Tracee is going to ship that prize directly to her.

Jannie Funster

Finally, I wanted to give a shout-out to Cassie Germsheid, of Mamas On The Web, who helped Tracee with her extensive blog re-design. Tracee's new site looks amazing and I know Cassie worked hard on it. (Pssst... Cassie is going to help me re-design my blog). :)

Cassie Germsheid - Always Busy!

Thank you to everyone for your patience. I have been dying to post this for awhile now!

I'm very grateful to these hard-working women. Every single one of them impresses me with their strength, passion, and professional work ethic.

I'm happy to have gotten to know each of these women and I'm thankful to have won these great prizes.

Thank you!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Season's Greetings: Illness, Power Outage, And Adversity Can't Stop Christmas And Hanukkah From Coming!

I am home sick today and cannot be with my family. I don't need to share this with others. (I know this is the time of year for sharing but not the germ kind of sharing if you know what I mean).

While I miss my family very much and am sad that I can't celebrate with them in person today, I want to focus instead on gratitude. There is much for me to be grateful for. Rather than focus on negative feelings, I'd like to focus on things I am thankful for...

Today's top 10 reasons I am grateful:

1) I have a family that loves me who I love very much. We have lots of love in our lives.

2) We have a roof over our heads and enough food to eat. We appreciate what we have and recognize that there are people who are less fortunate than we are. Our thoughts are with them today.

3) We have health insurance and access to great doctors. We know that there are millions of people with no health coverage at all.

4) We have transportation, electricity (something we really appreciated last night when we lost ours do to a power outage), and water. We are safe.

5) We have the ability to find the resources we need to manage the adversity we encounter. We recognize that adversity and challenges can provide opportunity for growth and enlightenment.

6) We do our best to learn from our mistakes and grow from them. We help others. We share information and resources. We pass along coping tips for those going through similar experiences.

7) We volunteer our time and talents to causes we believe in. We are grateful for the opportunity to help others through difficult times.

8) We are thankful that we keep learning, growing, adapting, and connecting with others. We are happy to know some outstanding, wonderful, thoughtful, insightful people who make the world a better place each day.

9) We are open-minded. We enjoy learning about circumstances different than ours. We appreciate diversity.

10) We are free. We have freedom of speech. We have freedom of religion. We are free to make our own choices in our pursuit of happiness.

Let me say that one reason I am really grateful for electricity today (see #4 above) is that we had a power outage last night. It set the smoke alarms off (no fire but all of them going off at once was very loud & startling). We manually turned off all of the alarms we could reach. (They still have batteries in them & still work. They are electrically wired - normally - as well. So they still worked after we "turned them off" noise-wise. We just undid the electric portion but if there were a fire right now, they would still go off). We have yet to hook them back up because we were asleep when the power got restored.

So we survived the power outage last night. Opening our presents in the dark (after dealing with the smoke alarms) was interesting. (There was no fire. The problem with the smoke alarms was related to the power outage and absence of power to the ceiling fan above the woodstove... a fan which is always on when the woodstove is so as not to confuse the smoke detector which is a little too sensitive).

I am thankful that our woodstove was already working prior to the power going off. I'm thankful that we had the light of the fire to help us to find our Hanukkah candles. I'm grateful that lighting a Hanukkah candle gave us enough light to locate a small flashlight (and a cell phone to use as a spare flashlight... which we needed to manage the smoke detectors)! When things settled down, we were fortunate to be able to open our Christmas and Hanukkah gifts by firelight and the Hanukkah candle (with a little help from the flashlight).

Our power was out on Christmas Eve from about 8:30 pm to 1:00 am. The power company fixed the downed wires.

IT WAS VERY WINDY!!!

Despite all of the commotion at our house, Santa still managed to find us.

I am scheduled to have my abscessed tooth extracted tomorrow. The oral surgeon squeezed me in for an emergency appointment for tomorrow (scheduled shortly before I got sick yesterday). I hope to still be able to make it tomorrow to have an abscessed tooth extracted. I'm thinking maybe getting the infected tooth out might help me feel better with my sinuses (and stop the post-nasal drip which is irritating my throat and making it very hard to tell if I have a virus or not). I'm on an antibiotic for the abscessed tooth.

So in the morning, I need to call them to ask them if they think my tooth infection has caused a chain reaction/spread to sinus problems with a VERY runny nose and a froggy throat.

I honestly don't know for sure if I'm contagious or not. I have never had an abscessed tooth and I just don't know if it could spread and cause infection elsewhere (?) but I do know my face hurts. So I may still be able to get my tooth extracted tomorrow. If so, I will be grateful for that because the pain feels like electric shocks to where my tooth is. (I didn't know teeth could hurt this much until now).

In any event, I wasn't going to chance it today. I don't need to infect a houseful of people on Christmas. Also, my niece is just getting over pneumonia. I just didn't think it would be wise for me to go. So my husband and daughter went and I stayed here.

I'll call the oral surgeon when they open in the morning and see if they want me to come in or not. I can't eat for 8 hours beforehand because they are going to put me out for it (due to my complicated medical history they thought it best not to do it while I'm awake and I tend to agree with them on that).

If they think my symptoms are tooth infection-related, then obviously the sooner I get in the better. If not, I don't want to get them sick and may need to get re-scheduled and get stuck with the dental deductible for 2009.

Thank you to my family, my blog's readers, my friends, my local endo support group members and all of my wonderful blogger friends who have such positive spirits and who make the world a better place!

So enough talking about last night's power outage or tomorrow's tooth extraction. As you can see, I have a lot to be thankful for. After I post this, I plan to meditate for a little while before my family returns home from holiday visits with extended family. They are en route as we speak! :)

Quote of the Day from The Foundation for a Better Life:

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? [Christmas] came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

—Dr. Seuss (1904-1991); writer, cartoonist

My thoughts are with those who are cold, hungry, in pain or unhappy today.

Today I wish for world peace.

"We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds".
--Anton Chekov

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: "Lemonade Award" for Jeanne's Endo Blog

I am thankful to Mckay k of Living With A Chronic Illness for awarding my blog with the Lemonade Award.

This award is given to blogs demonstrating a great attitude of gratitude.

Living With A Chronic Illness is full of practical, helpful information. Her positive attitude despite great adversity is an inspiration. She consistently writes interesting, thought-provoking articles that touch many.



In keeping with this award's tradition, I will now honor 10 other blogs with the Lemonade award, as follows:

1. Being Chronically Ill Is A Pill

2. Endometriosis: The Silent Life Sentence

3. Fighting Fatigue

4. ICI Experience

5. In's & Out's of Endo

6. Jannie Funster: When In Doubt Go For The Fun

7. LEMON-AIDE: Living With Complex Chronic Illness

8. My Journey With Endometriosis

9. So Sioux Me

10. Yayastuff

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: Let's Take A Moment To Learn About How Blog Action Day Will Address The Issue Of Poverty!

Writing a blog, for me, is about more than just sticking to one topic day in and day out. While this blog focuses on endometriosis and other chronic illnesses, I think it's important to participate in events that can have an impact beyond the day-to-day struggles we as chronically ill patients face.

For those of us who routinely have enough food to eat, have a home to live in, and do not live in fear for our day-to-day safety and security, it's hard to imagine what it's like to live in poverty. Whatever challenges we may face, I believe it's important to remember those less fortunate than us and do what we can to make this a better world for all.

I hope you'll take a moment to view the following video. The more we can get the word out about this event, the better.

I'm posting the following video in preparation for Blog Action Day on October 15, 2008. To learn more about Blog Action Day, just click on the Blog Action Day graphic on the right sidebar of the blog. This year's topic is poverty. Let's get a conversation going about this important topic.


Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Thank you.

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endo Blog: How Much Can Quotes & Artwork Heal, Comfort, And Enlighten Us??

Sometimes when we're chronically ill, we tend to focus on our physical and emotional pain. While this is certainly an understandable part of being chronically ill, sometimes it's nice to distract ourselves from the pain by focusing our energy on uplifting materials!! Today I thought I'd write a post that IS NOT focused on endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, fibromyalgia, or any other chronic illness. Instead, I thought I'd post some quotes and artwork to shift the focus off of our illnesses for a bit!

If you're anything like me, you love quotes! I find them insightful, uplifting and thought-provoking. Of course, not all quotes are uplifting in nature. Some clarify bitter truths, cause the reader to examine history, and act to educate us in how we can all be better people by helping others.

I've decided to list quotes from a wide variety of sources... in random order. Hopefully something in this list will inspire you, comfort you or support you. Also, I've included some mandala art. Hopefully you'll find this uplifting!

All mandala art contained in this post is courtesy of Jennifer at http://www.mandalaspiritart.com/

"Beauty" Mandala

Here are some quotes that resonate with me in some way:

++++++++++++++

“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948)

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
-- Albert Einstein (1875-1955), theoretical physicist, philosopher

“Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
-- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American civil rights leader

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
-- Buddha

"Insight" Mandala

“Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.”
-- Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Greek tragedian

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”
-- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), U.S. First Lady, diplomat, human rights activist

“Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.”
-- Buddha

“If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
-- Maya Angelou (b. 1928), poet

"Joy" Mandala

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the courage to surpass others at whatever cost, but the courage to serve others at whatever the cost.”
-- Arthur Ashe (1943-1993), professional tennis player, civil rights supporter

“There was never a good war or a bad peace.”
-- Benjamin Franklin

“If mankind recognizes that war is impossible...that all national rivalries are foolish...if they get together any kind of an extension of detente... then we may pull out of it all the better for it.”
-- Tori Amos (musician, singer, songwriter, pianist)

"Happy Days" Mandala

“The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.”
-- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), philosopher

“I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery and death ... I think peace and tranquillity will return again.”
-- Anne Frank (German Jewish girl and author of a diary of her family's two years in hiding during World War II, 1929-1945)

“If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”
-- Chief Joseph (Native American Quote)

"Native American" Mandala

“You know that saying, bad things don’t happen to good people? That’s a lie.”
-- Tori Amos (musician, singer, songwriter, pianist)

"Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, and beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger ... Show respect to all people and bow to no one ..."
-- Tecumseh, Shawnee (Native American Quote)

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.”
-- Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), actress, humanitarian

"Heal The Earth" Mandala

When a white army battles Indians and wins, it
is called a great victory, but if they lose it
is called a massacre.
-- Chiksika, Shawnee (Native American Quote)

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy (American 35th US President (1961-63), 1917-1963)

++++++++++++++

Peace to each one of you!!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: Gratitude Moment!

Above is an image I wanted readers to have the pleasure of viewing. This symbol is called a mandala...

It was used with permission from Jennifer Jones at:

http://www.mandalaspiritart.com/

You can learn more about mandalas at the above site. Many more mandalas can be found there.

Today I wanted to post something simple but meaningful. I wanted to "lighten things up" with the beautiful image above... and I wanted to post a "Gratitude Moment" to two wonderful women.

I'd like to thank these two very special people!!!

These are two women who have consistently posted thought-provoking, supportive, insightful, hopeful, positive comments on this blog. If you look through the comments on most articles on this blog, you'll see one or both of them listed as having commented:

Alicia (aka "yaya")
Mckay k

These two women have been incredibly supportive of this blog and I wanted to dedicate a "Gratitude Moment" to each of them!

Each of them is also a blogger.

Alicia has endometriosis and infertility. She occasionally includes these as topics on her "Random Thoughts" blog. (She descibes her Yayastuff blog as --- "Random thoughts, Daily Thoughts, Life, Friends, Family, Nanny Job"):

http://yayastuff.blogspot.com/


Mckay k writes two blogs. One is on chronic illness and the other is about her Koi Pond/Garden. (She is an avid gardener and also has multiple chronic illnesses):

Chronic Illness Blog:

http://livingwithachronicillness.blogspot.com/

Koi Pond Blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=123987592

These two women are strong, intelligent, supportive, helpful, and kind. I am grateful to have them in my life. One lives nearby and another lives far away. Regardless of who lives where, both of these women have had a profound impact on this blog with their frequent comments and great observations/information!

I would like to publicly thank each of them for helping me be a better blogger and a better person! They are both inspirational to me!

THANK YOU Alicia! THANK YOU Mckay k!

PLEASE NOTE:

This was written last week. I was unable to access my computer and post this at that time. I will probably not be able to update my blog regularly for awhile. I will get back on schedule as soon as possible but wanted to finally get this posted.

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: The Value Of A **REAL** DAY OFF!!

Endometriosis blog entry for 7/31/08:
"OUT OF OFFICE NOTICE"...

Yesterday I didn't "practice what I preached". I meant to rest but instead I didn't. What I saved in blog-writing time, I made up for in blog-related emails and long replies to yesterday's comments.

Therefore, I am going to take a true day off from blogging today: no posting entries, no replying to comments, no networking with fellow bloggers, no installing tools on the blog, no checking blog traffic.

This will be the first 100% ***REAL*** DAY OFF since I began blogging on June 1, 2008!

After that we have relatives coming into town and I will be pretty busy. So if you post any comments and don't get an immediate response, you'll know why. I'll do my best to catch up on answering comments when I return but they will remain in moderation until I resume blogging.

So we'll call this my "out of office" message for at least a day.

I hope you'll keep those comments coming in while I'm away and that you'll stay with me/check back soon on my endometriosis & chronic illness blog!!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.