a year and seven months later...

How quickly time passes...my interests remain the same...jewelry design, crafting, reading, and of course, continuing to raise two sons...thought the latter has pretty much been put on to auto pilot...though I do "put my two cents in " probably too often for their tastes!! With the youngest about to turn 17, my comments can pretty much be summed up to be answered with a "I know, Mom".

I have blogged on a few of the sites I visit often, CafeMom...where I have two "groups" of women, all Moms...who either have Chronic Pain..."Moms with Chronic Pain", or "Moms with, but not limited to" a group that enables women who have either Emotional Health Issues or Physical Health Issues, or both...which seems to be the most prevalent!

I started the first Group, "Moms with," back in February 07', thinking perhaps two or three dozen women may find themselves falling into these categories...I guess I was fooling myself..the count is up to just shy of 300...and my group is one of many that are listed on the site. I find alot more women with challenges are now "coming out of the closet" per se, and discussing things that they're faced with a bit more ease, than say, back in 1998 when I first rode the on ramp to the Internet Highway. One of the Predominant Diagnosis I was given back then was Fibromyalgia...some people would respond with a "God bless you" after the word, not having a clue as to what in the world I was talking about...this "Fibr i my alckia"...Not that I blame them !! I didn't have much of a clue myself, and found myself doing alot of research on every site I could find..some garbage site, others that were of great value.

Finally the Diagnosis was recognized not only by Doctors, but by the Federal Government as well...always reassuring when you are on Social Security Disability. Still, there are women who continue to join Cafemom who are just as befuddled as I was back in 1998 about the constant Pain they deal with, the sensitivity to touch, temperature, morning aches and spasms, fatigue and inability to sleep. To me, the worst was the inability to work. When I blogged on here a year and seven months ago..I was attempting to do some Medical Auditing...here and there, when I was able to ...this didn't last long. To my dismay, I could find myself somewhat useful in the early morning hours, after taking my pain medication as soon as my feet hit the floor. But as the clock ticked beyond 10 a.m., I could feel the ability to concentrate fizzling away, my mind fading, and the aches working their way up my spine again. It's frustrating when you grow up with a "work ethic" that you reap what you sow...I would work up to three jobs at a time when necessary . But to have that ability snatched out from beneath you is extremely frustrating. You no longer have the ability to "supplement" your income. You can't run out and get a quick part time job waiting tables on the weekend with the Holidays coming up soon! You are faced with one check a month to squeak out all of your expenses. All of them !! You can't even keep your own house, let alone cleaning offices after your "day job". But, time moves on...

The second group I formed when I saw that the majority of women posting to the groups were primarily women with JUST the Emotional Illnesses...and I knew there were alot of women "lurking" in the group who were challenged not only with the Emotional aspects, but the Physical Aspects as well...thus "Moms with Chronic Pain" was born...

Alot of the initial members were transplants from the "Moms With, " group..but as the weeks moved to month to month..I found I could no longer manage the Pain group alone and needed an Administrator, as I had with the initial group. I had a woman whom I found to be much like myself, in humor, age and background. Robin is a fabulous woman with a very similar work ethic...and equally painfilled life. Rather than sons, she was blessed with two daughters..though older than my children. She has been an incredible help in organizing and handling every aspect of the group.

The interesting aspect of this website I have taken notice of, however, is what happens when you have ALOT of women in one site...Chaos!! There is a "journal" aspect to every profile of every member. This is where I would "blog" and get things off my chest. I found a huge number of members use it for much the same purpose..but lately Religion seems to be ruling the roost as topics to Journal on...and these journals can be "voted" as popular, or whether they should be "considered" popular...It strikes me as something as close to High School politics in an Adult situation as one can find on the Internet!

Chaotic is probably the clearest description as to how "Days" can become on the website. When I questioned an Atheist member of one of my groups as to why she and alot of her fellow "Athe" sisters, as she refers to them, were journals on one particular day about "I am Atheist, therefore I am". She replied to my email that a large group of "Right winged Christian women" were writing to she and her friends that they were"fairy tales" and therefore, didn't exist. Interesting...somebody was writing to me under her member name...and I don't think it was the Great Pumpkin, lol !!! It was their"inner athe joke" she replied...that they would let everyone know they did exist...interesting approach!! Now they've decided to develop their own "Invisible Pink Unicorn Church"...I don't have the heart to tell her the definition of "Church" in the Dictionary when I "googled " it was a large religious group, primarily Christian.!!