Online interview about this blog...

Recently I was asked by Wegohealth.com to do an online interview...... here it is.

Be sure to look around on their site - there are a bunch or really interesting articles and help.

Here is a bit more information and some links to look at too.  Please see if you can be a part of this group - its always a wonderful thing when people can help others through whatever it is in their lives.  This is not only regarding CML, but covers many other health issues.

Once we are back home again I will be more involved with them too, right now I have just run sheer out of time!

Till later.....

love and light - and laughter!  Thanks Esther :)

Annie

Upcoming CML Insight Groups:

In our ongoing mission to empower Health Activists to help others, WEGO Health is hosting online focus groups on Tuesday, May 25^th for people who are active contributors to the CML community online.  We’re looking to learn more about the CML community, what folks are talking about, and what kinds of tools and resources might be helpful.  These groups are being held on behalf of one of WEGO Health’s sponsors.

All participants will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate, and WEGO Health will make a matching donation on their behalf to the National CML Society.

The sessions last one hour and are held remotely—participants can join from anywhere in the country, you just need to be online & on the phone at the same time.  Groups will be held at Noon, 4PM, 6PM and 9PM Eastern Time.

If you’re interested in participating on May 25^th, the link below will take you to a short survey to see if the group might be appropriate for you:

CML Insight Survey (hyperlink goes to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V58GZDK)

http://twitter.com/wegohealth

http://facebook.com/wegohealth

www.wegohealth.com

empowering Health Activists to help others

Spotlight on: Annie, author of the blog Living with CML

Active in the CML Community since: My son Steven was diagnosed March 2006.

Occupation: I fix, build, repair, re-program, de-virus, and upgrade computers

What do you do when you’re not raising awareness about CML: Photography, travel as much as possible, catch up with family and friends

What prompted you to start blogging after you learned of Steven’s diagnosis in 2006?

Writing has always been an outlet for me. Most times when you go through something this huge in your life, others cannot possibly “get it” without having gone through the exact same thing. So no matter how my family and friends wanted to help, they couldn't. Writing it down became a way to sort through and get rid of some of my frustrations and feelings of horror.

It was a very emotional and scary time and to tell the details over and over again as family or friends asked, took a lot out of me. Blogging was a way that I could tell it once and everyone who wanted to know could get the information. It also made it easy for those who did not know how or what to ask to keep up to date and deal with it in small chunks at a time.

You recently printed out a few copies of your blog and reread it from the beginning—did anything surprise you?

Oh yes! It really surprised me just how much I’ve written, what I put in and some of the things I left out. It also made me smile at how I would interpret a photograph according to what was happening with Steven or the thoughts and feelings in my life at that stage. I was in such a fog in the early days; I am really glad that I wrote it down or much of it would be forgotten by now.

It surprised me that in some ways it feels like just yesterday that we lived all that, and that the emotions still lie really close to the surface when re-reading the blog. At the same time it feels like a lifetime ago. I can now see that it’s not only a diary of Steven's CML progress, but of my growth, acceptance and how I have learned to live, give and care about so much more than I did before.

It surprised me just how much my focus has been able to shift from CML being all encompassing, to enjoying life so much more, with CML just an important part of it. If someone had told me back then that this would happen, I am sure I would not have believed it. It is also very interesting to realize just how much fuller my life is with everything and everyone that CML has brought our way. Our lives have really been enriched and strengthened over the past four years, and holding the blog in my hand in paper form really drove that home for me.

How has your blog changed since you started it?

The blog started as a horror story for me. Now, after seeing it in print and reading it again from the start, I see it as quite an amazing love and life story. It’s a story of the deep love and admiration I have for Steven and his wife, Laura; of the love and patience of my daughters, Lisa and Joleen, and my husband, Frank, while they waited till my focus could properly include them again - it took a while. The love and care shown to me from people all over the world while they were and are in their own world of pain has been absolutely incredible. But it’s not a story that is by any means over – every day contact with incredible people from many different parts of the world keep adding to this huge circle of support that is always available. This story is not only being built in the sad and bad times, but most definitely in the celebration of good times too, despite cancer in our lives. Perhaps because of it. The early words and memories of the blog are soaked with fear and loneliness. It’s so very different now, so much lighter, so much gentler.

Do you find there are particular challenges blogging as more of a “caregiver” than a patient?

Oh yes. For starters, sometimes it feels like I am whining about something that is not even mine. Someone said to me about a year after Steven’s diagnosis: "He is doing fine so have no reason to worry, and this disease is his, not yours – let it go!"

This is true, but as a parent of a child with cancer, life is just not that simple any more – we cannot just close that door to worry, it has to work itself closed over a period of time. I am also not really Steven's caregiver – that is primarily Laura's role and she is totally amazing. She keeps a close eye on him every day and deals first hand with the side effects, frustrations and worries that go along with this all - I would love to tap into her mind and really understand her role.

I am always aware that I have no idea what or how Steven (or anyone else with CML) is coping with it, but I can write about my feelings and struggles in learning to deal with the fear and changes that a cancer diagnosis in my child brings. In a situation that is really good right now with Steven holding on to lovely low test scores, it is a wonderful, and almost free, place to be able to write from.

What do you wish someone had told you when you first learned that Steven had CML?

That they had made a mistake and that he just had flu…

I am not sure that anything anyone could have told me would have sunk in or made a difference when we first learned that Steven has leukemia. Getting Steven to see Dr. Druker about five months after his diagnosis was the very best thing we could have done. Dr. Druker instilled such peace, hope and normalcy in us all. After that meeting, I listened to my son sing as we drove from Portland to the coast. That’s not an ordinary occurrence and it was truly a beautiful noise! That was a turning point in all our lives. A good one. I wish a “Dr. Druker visit” on everyone with CML.

What’s the most common question people ask you about CML?

People don’t really ask anything particular – they read the marrow donor plea on the shop wall, and sometimes ask if that’s our son. It does not seem to be widely known that there are a quite a few different types of leukemia and they are often surprised that CML can be treated “as easily” with a Gleevec pill a day.

Normally, after they read or hear about Steven’s diagnosis, eyes go soggy, heads tilt and I can almost see them scrabbling for words. I quickly reassure them that he is doing great, that he will be ok, that he is going right on with life and I tell them how important becoming a bone marrow and blood donor is.

Most times, talking about Steven’s diagnosis opens the door to them telling me about their own cancer experience and so often their words tumble out in a manner that shows that even years later, they needed to share their story again. It’s fascinating and wonderful and has taught me that almost everyone has a story of some kind that needs and deserves listening to.

Is there an area of CML research that has you most excited right now?

Yes, there are a few very interesting trials going on that I have so much hope for. The people who are in these trials are the forerunners to a cure for Steven and the many other CML-ers out there. They have my utmost admiration and the deepest possible thanks – each one of them. Every step forward towards the possible cure of CML is reason for excitement and hope and it’s absolutely wonderful to see just how much research is being done in this field.

What has helped you the most during the past four years?

The most helpful thing has definitely been the fact that Steven is so open with me about everything regarding his CML. I cannot imagine not knowing a test result, or when his blood tests are done. I know that either he or Laura will come to me with any worries or questions they have, and this really does free me up to get on with my life without creating those dreaded ‘what if’s’. It allows me to look at Steven with fewer ‘mama-scans’ and see CML as only the very small part of him that it is now. In the first couple of years, I have to admit to thinking first of CML and then of the person whenever Steven came through the door. Now when he works with us on Saturdays, the whole day will go by without any worry-thought being tied to him – just wonderful. I could not have reached this space in my life, or been able to put CML aside to this extent, if he and Laura had not been willing to share it all. I know my relationship with Steven would not be as close as it is now if things had been any different.

The online support groups were absolutely critical to helping me become more even keeled and especially to learn everything I needed to about CML. They were particularly important in the first two years. They really were my 24/7 help line that kept me going then. They’re still a constant source of information that comes directly from personal experience and an incredible amount of knowledge from all over the world. The ability to post a question there and get a response from someone who is going through the same issue is priceless.

The people that I met through there and through my blog are all a huge part of who I am today and because I am ok, I firmly believe that Steven is able to move on in a more whole way too. All these people, and so many more, will always be a part of our lives.

What’s the best feedback you’ve received since you started Living With CML?

It’s all been the best – from the moms reading what I write and finding help in the words, their stories of hope, heartache and help; the people who write just to make contact even for a little while; others that I have met on our travels around the USA – all the best.

The firm friends that have been made through CML and the continuing contact through the ‘frilly times’ into the more gentle and kind days—it’s a really great experience to follow someone through transplant and into the years beyond and to share the good days with them after so many really rough days.

Hearing that someone has seen just how important it is to let their mom know how they are doing and feeling, and that this helps their mom too, is such a bonus. To hear that a relationship between people has been improved or repaired because someone read how it helps me to know all the details, is phenomenal. It’s life changing.

So many people have shown us so much caring and each one is as special and important as the next. It’s an incredible feeling to know that just writing about my emotions actually helps others.

I feel deeply honored that I have been able to help in this way.