Advise. So Much Easier to Give Than Receive
A friend of mine just got word that she has cancer. She’s honored me by sharing this with me early on, before telling her other friends. We talked about it a lot. I felt useful like I’ve learned something about it from the last 3 years. Strange how we have completely different cancers and yet there are so many similarities. The biggest difference is that hers is accessible and mine is deep in my core where we can’t see well and can’t just go in and fish around.
We talked about how cancer can change us, how one of the first things we learn is how many people actually care about us and will help. That’s something we’re both very blessed to have; friends and loved ones. We talked about the perverse burden of communication with them all, even just to tell them the basic news. She observed how she could handle about one conversation a day. Any more was exhausting. That’s what I found too at first. So many emails which are today’s letters. So many phone calls, and in this modern world so many social media posts and text messages.
That’s when I shared how I’m doing it here. In a blog. It’s a bit old fashioned but it is ours to control. No algorithms selecting what our loved ones see, just what we put up here, accessible from all those other communication methods with a simple URL. I was lucky because I’d already started one years ago. She is lucky because she can use the services of WordPress.com and has been able to put up a simple blog in a day; just enough to keep everyone informed.
I noticed that the hosted blogs have an email subscription feature. Mine doesn’t right now because I need to add it as a plugin since I get hosted by a platform service and not as a software service. Early on I set up RSS feeds for notifying about new posts and another for new comments, but RSS feeds are too hard for most people to use, so most of my posts go unnoticed. I should probably get off my butt and find an email notification plugin. I think I’ll do that now and post about my epic, world of pain reaction to my second Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. Stay tuned!
April 10, 2021 @ 11:21 am
I had been checking regularly to see how things are going, but the radio silence made that feel oddly stalky… Now I come back and there are many many posts, and lotsa words per post as well! Holding my breath as I catch up.
and Ouch. even before the update I’m bracing to the news that the 2nd Moderna shot didn’t go well. I had (ironically) extra back pain and shoulder pain right before mine, and with the no NSAID rule, I think that and the 2nd shot somehow each distracted from the other and leveled things out.
OK – on to your next post. Deep breath!