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ChronicBabe Carnival #7: Tips for brand-new ChronicBabes

If you are new to life with chronic illness, you are in the right place. ChronicBabes from around the blogosphere are here to help and support you. At one time, we were all where you are: getting the news that we have an illness that isn't going away with a pill, a diet change, some meditation or another quick fix. We empathize with your situation and we can be here for you as you make the transition from being your illness to embracing being a Babe first, and Chronic second.

As you can see, ChronicBabes are a generous bunch, willing to lend a shoulder, a hand and a blog post written just for you. This isn't a club any of us imaged we would belong to, but we enjoy each others' company and have come to see each other as family. So welcome to our world, sick chick. Here is our present: Tips for Brand-New ChronicBabes, just like you!

Telling it like it is

When Calamity Calls is a good way to describe what it feels like when you are diagnosed with chronic illness. Go and visit PJ, who shares the insights she has gained from 30 years of dealing with mean-spirited disease at her blog Leaps of Faith.

Casey at moosh in indy wishes she could tell so many women what they are not, and mostly wishes they would hear that they are not alone. We urge you to read her inspired and empathetic post, you are not, with a tissue in your hand.

In a modern twist on the art of letter writing, Nessie took the time to compose a heart-felt message for you new ChronicBabes over at Lipstick, perfume and too many pills. In an open letter to you she reminds us to take a deep breath, amongst other things.

Then there is Selena over at Oh My Aches and Pains!, who has spent a lot of time experimenting with different strategies to figure out what works for her. She shares the approach that helps her live with fibromyalgia and the late effects of cancer treatment in her post Chronic Illness: It Sucks ... And I Deal With It.

Words of wisdom

"It's okay not to be okay" is just one of the many wonderful and encouraging axioms Lenka Vodicka of Lenkaland: living the good life with a disability offers new ChronicBabes. In Welcome to Our Community, her open letter to all with disabilities, she encourages us to consider making the the path of chronic illness a fun and worthwhile journey.

Mary of Blue Star Moon truly believes that hiding our pain does not serve us. In her post The Secrecy of Pain she invites us to validate our pain by leaving a comment answering the questions: "Have you hid your pain?" and "What causes you to do this?"

Over at How can I explain it to you? The life of a grad student with lupus, SR says, "Doctors will send you home with pamphlets, medications, and what to expect from a medical perspective like disease symptoms and medication side effects ... but there are some 'side effects' that aren't in their text books." Read about the other aspects of chronic illness that only a fellow ChronicBabes could tell you about in her post "what your doctor couldn't tell you..."

How to cope

What do all the ChronicBabes in this carnival have in common? They blog, of course. Like Carly at Tune into Radio Carly, who discovered that writing allows her to tell her story about her illness experience and deal with it on her own terms. Read about her experience in On why I blog.

While Elisabeth still feels new to the chronic illness experience, there are things she knows now that she wishes she had known when she first started out. There is one coping strategy in particular she feels is the most important, and she writes about it in Best Advice for the New Chronic Babe (or Bro!) at her blog Redefining "Good."

Good advice

Jennifer Jaff knows what she is talking about, Babes. She is the executive director of Advocacy for Patients With Chronic Illness, an organization that provides free legal and insurance assistance for persons with chronic illness. She also lives with Crohn's disease. Read A Patient Voice: Conversations About Chronic Illness for the advice she would give a newly diagnosed patient.

Your 5 Must-Have Items for Surgery and Treatment might have begun with five suggestions, but now includes over 200 great ideas about ways to manage comfort, pain and care. Thank you, Kairol Rosenthal, (aka Ms. Macgyver, at Everything Changes) for showing us that everything from diaper ointment to lemon drops has the potential to make life easier for us ChronicBabes.

Wendy at Transform Your Chronic Life is one resourceful Babe. In her post New to the "Chronic Illness Game?": How to Survive and Thrive Anyway she complies a list of Internet referrals and reference materials that will help you start managing your illness, instead of allowing your illness to manage you.

Lessons learned

The Migrainista shares with newcomers five things she has learned in the five years she has been a ChronicBabe. Check out her post, Tips for a Brand-New ChronicBabe. Just going there will help you practice tip number four!

We like how observant the Forgetful Girl was when she was told by her doctor she had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, because we notice the same, absurd details when getting bad news too. We also like her list of tips and tricks for people who are recently diagnosed with chronic illness in her post Survival Guide 3 - Welcome Party at the Diary of a Forgetful Girl.

A good way to learn more about what ails you is to hit the books, which is what Loolwa Khazzoom at Dancing with Pain has done. In her post, Top 3 Books for People Living with Chronic Pain, she offers a quick summary of books on the subject of living with, managing, and healing from chronic pain.

Like what you see here? Why not enter the next ChronicBabe Blog Carnival?!

We're having so much fun running a blog carnival! But maybe there's room for improvement; we want to hear your suggestions. Let us know what you think in the discussion over at the Forum.

Want to participate in the next carnival? It's two weeks from today (publish date: July 13, 2010), and the theme is: Who's On Your Team? We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic, maybe a list of folks you love, or a story about someone who helps you in a special way. If you want to participate, send us your name (as you would like it to appear), the name of your blog, the name of your post, and a 1-2 sentence description of the post. We'll let you know if you're accepted. Send all that to chronic babe @ gmail dot com. The deadline is Sunday, July 11, at 10pm CST.

P.S.: Why not spread the love and submit a post from your favorite ChronicBabe blogger? Tell us who you love to read and we'll include her, too!

And as always, we thank our pals at Fibrochondriac who helped make this carnival awesome! Kathy and Selena, you rock, Babes!

Posted: 6/29/2010 in Blog Carnival | Also posted in: Announcements

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