Tag: blog carnival

Welcome to the ninth edition of Carnival of Compassion, a weekly roundup of the "best of" recent patient blog posts.

Good advice and resources can make coping with illness a little easier.

• Professional Patient offers straightforward yet crucial advice for patients: Listen to yourself and know your body.
• ChronicBabe gives rave reviews to the book Chronically Happy: Joyful Living In Spite of Chronic Illness.

Understanding how others perceive you and your illness is occasionally more difficult than managing the illness itself. Especially if you feel abandoned.

• Wendy of AnaRunner is learning just how many people love and support her.
• Luanne’s Life Living With Lupus talks about what the disease is really like.
• Been Broken considers how his friends have responded to his recent bout of depression after he declared himself over mental illness.

I’m convinced that the plot of most movies and books can be summed up by saying, "It’s about the resiliency of the human spirit." That’s something that patients have in common, too.

• Anyone with chronic illness has to be strong, but Angel of Give Me Something to Sing About considers how useful it is to be reminded of one’s own resiliency.
• While disease takes a lot from sufferers, it also distills the importance of what remains, as Kerri of Six Until Me demonstrates.

It’s shouldn’t surprise anyone that illness instigates many unexpected changes in life.

• It has great power to change our lifelong plans, as Christine of A Savvy Career (IBS) Girl has recognized.
• After announcing that he would be back to his "old self" soon, Ron of My Hepatitis C Weblog is beginning to accept that his "new self" is here to stay.
• Something once unfathomable can become an option, as Alex describes on Pseudarthrosis.

Sometimes the little things are the most important.

• Seeing himself as different but not damaged is how a man described on Diabetes Mine was what it took for him to take care of himself.
• Finding a great doctor can make your day, as Rae of Limbodacious learned.

Being a patient can mean more than confronting illness — like confronting social issues.

• On AIDS Combat Zone, Brad shares opines about decriminalizing prostitution to reduce the spread of HIV.
• Stacy of No More Mashed Potatoes talks about recent news that represents a breakthrough for pain patients.
• Bureaucracy can be so restrictive as to turn away a patient in need. Elisa of HealthyConcerns tells the story.
• Multiple Mentality ponders whether medication or mindset is helping his depression. He also examines the implications of "the weakest argument ever" to not vaccinate against a disease. [9/21/06: This blog is no longer active]

When someone becomes a caregiver, his or her life changes significantly. I’m sharing these blogs in honor of all the selfless people who assume the role.

• Grammie Debbie, who has a bright outlook on her role as a caregiver, wonders just how many times a cup of coffee can be reheated in the microwave.
• Do doctors know best? Or do parents? Elisa of HealthyConcerns explores these questions.
• Cary from Cancer News Watch reminds patients of the importance of doing something they love to keep their spirits up.
• Caregiver Tips reminds caregivers and patients alike that doing and being one’s best erases the "coulda, woulda, shoulda."
• Cerin Amroth isn’t about someone with illness or that person’s caregivers, but this post has a great example of how everyone is a caregiver. It reminded me that I’m a caregiver as much as a caretaker, just in a different way.

To end on a light note…

• Meds are often at the forefront of managing illness. Listen to the Drugs Song, shared on Blacktriangle, for a laugh.

Six Until Me will host next week’s Carnival of Compassion. If you’d like to host it on your blog sometime, read the details.