“30 Things About My Chronic Illness ” Meme

invisiblepage 600x400 30 Things About My Chronic Illness  Meme

Last year hundreds of people participated in our “30 Things” Meme. We’d love to hear from you again (A new year may bring new answer, so even if you filled this out last year, we would love to see your answers this year, as well! ).

This is a great way to blog about your invisible illness too. We may say, “No one understands!” but have we really given them the chance to?

Fill this out, post it on your blog or on Facebook, etc. and then let your friends and family know. You may even be surprised to find out who you know who is living silently with his or her own invisible illness.

Be sure to comment below with the name of your blog and where it’s posted so we can come read it!

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

1. The illness I live with is:
2. I was diagnosed with it in the year:
3. But I had symptoms since:
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is:
5. Most people assume:
6. The hardest part about mornings are:
7. My favorite medical TV show is:
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is:
9. The hardest part about nights are:
10. Each day I take __ pills & vitamins. (No comments, please)
11. Regarding alternative treatments I:
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose:
13. Regarding working and career:
14. People would be surprised to know:
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been:
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was:
17. The commercials about my illness:
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is:
19. It was really hard to have to give up:
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is:
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would:
22. My illness has taught me:
23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is:
24. But I love it when people:
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is:
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them:
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is:
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was:
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because:
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel:

Are you blogging for Invisible Illness Week? Be sure to sign up and let us know at Bloggers Unite!

 30 Things About My Chronic Illness  Meme

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Invisible Illness Week Now Accepting Articles For This Site

accept articles invisible illness week Invisible Illness Week Now Accepting Articles For This SiteWe have now opened up over submission page for articles and blogs to be featured on this website in the coming two months. I am looking forward to hearing your feedback on what it is like to live with a chronic condition that is invisible.

To submit your complete article, bio, and photo, click on the link above that says “Submit Article.”

Here are some of the topics we are looking for and your post should be trained 300 and 750 words.

  • Our theme this year is “Deep Breath, Start Fresh” – what does this to you and how you live chronic illness?

What has your experience been in coping with…

  • Physical needs that are not apparent to others because you look well
  • Expectations from those around you, from your spouse to your boss, because you look well
  • How your children perceive your chronic condition
  • How you choose to reveal or not reveal the seriousness of your illness
  • How you deal with your illness on a daily basis. When it is invisible is easier to deny the seriousness of it?
  • The looks. . . when you park in a handicapped spot legally to when you explain your unable to walk very far
  • Still finding joy in life despite some limitations
  • How physicians and other medical care professionals don’t even understand that your pain is quite invisible
  • How do have sought to bring awareness about invisible illness as in healthcare advocate
  • How you have tried to explain to your loved ones about having invisible illnesses or a hidden disability
  • and the list goes on!

We are eager to hear from you about the emotions of living with a chronic condition, how you have found yourself dealing with difficult circumstances, how you overcome the need to stay in bed and hide from the world are most difficult days, what ever is on your mind!

Before you submit your article you should have a third person biographies ready to go that is less than 150 words and contained only one week. If you submit more than this it will be edited and you may not be pleased with which part we keep. Please do not submit a link to your article on your website but rather the actual article, which you will copy and paste into our form. If it does not have the article in the form, it will be deleted.

And if you are talking about your illness or Invisible Illness Week we hope you will join our Bloggers Unite group so that other people can be sure to visit your website and read your postings.

Thank you so much,
Lisa Copen

 Invisible Illness Week Now Accepting Articles For This Site

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Listen to Invisible Illness Week Workshops Any Time for Encouragement

September 28, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Online Ways to Help, What's New, How to Help

woman mp3player Listen to Invisible Illness Week Workshops Any Time for EncouragementDid you happen to make some of our podcast seminars during National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week? We had some amazing guests as our panelists who contributed to a successful week of inspiration, information, and education.

One of my favorite emails from of listener that I just received this weekend says:

“I listened to the broadcast on Monday. I cried through the whole thing. I listened to it a few more times because I missed too much (crying). I felt so validated for the first time in 5 years. It doesn’t matter that my disease is a 1 in 200,000 what was discussed was common to all. I have no idea the hours of labor you put into the week or the finances or the physical cost to your body that such an undertaking had but I know it had to be great. I just want you to know that your labors made a difference. . . Just learning that what I feel is common to all who suffer with chronic illness made me realize that though I sometimes feel like I am isolated God is right there with me every step.”

Wow. Tears came to my eyes as I read her entire email (this is just a portion above) and then I printed it out and read it to my husband.

To all of you who helped me make this week possible, thank you.

Now. . . head on over to Invisible Illness Week podcasts at Blog Talk Radio to get some more encouragement. You may even find an episoide from 2008 or 2009 that strikes a chord with you too! You can also find our Invisible Illness Week programs in the Apple itunes store for free if you want to download them to your ipod.

 Listen to Invisible Illness Week Workshops Any Time for Encouragement

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How You Can Help This Week! Things to Know

woman on computer2 How You Can Help This Week! Things to KnowMonday, September 13, 2010 kicks off Invisible Illness Week!

There are many ways to get involved in the online activities of the week, but the most important thing to know is…

We will be having an online VIRTUAL conference. What does that mean? Each day, M-F, 10:30-12 PACIFIC you can go directly to http://invisibleillnessconference.com and you will be connected with our workshop automatically at Blog Talk Radio.

Each morning we will have a series of special guest experts who have dealt with illness in their own lives who will be able to answer questions and who will have some key talking points about topics such as coping with illness, parenting, getting organizes, relationships, setting boundaries, working, and of course, the whole “invisible” illness issues.

Here are some other ways to get involved:

Tell someone!
Do you want to email a family member, friend, pastor, counselor, support group leader, your favorite newsletter’s editor? Here is a short description of Invisible Illness Awareness Week – copy, paste, & share anywhere! http://ow.ly/2D1eo

If you have a blog:
Do our meme: “30 Things You May Not Know About My Invisible Illness” (Found here: http://ow.ly/2D1aQ ; Or blog about any invisible illness topic) and then sign up at Bloggers Unite so everyone can find your blog post at http://ow.ly/2D13m Be sure to grab the badge that you are participating too!

Grab the button for your site:
See bottom right side column with code at http://invisibleillnessweek.com

Read about our panelists/special guests:
See someone who you want to make sure your friends know about – be sure to let them know with an email and link to this page:
http://invisibleillnessweek.com/2010/09/08/conf-workshops/

Connect with others: Join the Sunroom group for Invisible Illness Week: http://www.restministriessunroom.com/group/invisibleillness

Download our free 80-page ebook!
20 Experts share their tips about living with a chronic illness. Just sign up for the daily updates from Invisible Illness Week at http://invisibleillnessweek.com (top right side of page), confirm “subscription”, and you will get the download link.

To read blogs of others:
Bloggers who have committed to blogging about invisible illness week or II topics are registered at Bloggers Unite at http://ow.ly/2D13m – Here you can get a description of their blogs too.

Do you tweet? Here are some great things to retweet!
http://invisibleillnessweektweets.wordpress.com

Give a donation!
Have you considered giving a donation to help with Invisible Illness Week expenses?  Every little bit helps if you are financially able to give. http://ow.ly/2D1sh

Check out the photos of where people have left sticky-notes this year! http://invisibleillness.com (right column)

If you are on Facebook:
Join our “Invisible Illness Week Cause” http://ow.ly/2D1GP
Be a Fan! http://ow.ly/2D1I3
Click the “like” button on any of our web posts at http://InvisibleIllnessWeek.com
RSVP to the “event” http://ow.ly/2D1A5

* Share anything (the Cause, Event, Group, etc.) with a friend!

Post this as your status!
Nearly 1 in 2 people live w/ a chronic condition, most of them invisible. If it’s not you, it’s someone you love. In recognition of Invisible Illness Awareness Week, http://InvisibleIllnessWeek.com post this as your status so someone who is suffering silently knows someone cares!

 How You Can Help This Week! Things to Know

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National Invisible Illness Week Features Virtual Conference This Week

September 12, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Online Ways to Help, What's New, How to Help

logo med low res 288 National Invisible Illness Week Features Virtual Conference This WeekSBWire-9/13/10– National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is September 12-19, 2010 and this week, Monday through Friday, the campaign features a virtual conference with one 90-minute seminar each day.

Listeners can log on to http://InvisibleIllnessConference.com to listen LIVE or later to the archived audio file. The seminars will also be available at itunes.com . To listen live, log on during September 13-17, 10:30 – 12 Pacific time; 12:30-2 PM Central time; or 1:30 PM – 3 PM Eastern time.

Topics include coping with illness, parenting, getting organized, relationships, setting boundaries, working, and of course, the whole “invisible” illness issues. Participants include best-selling author Pam Farrel, chronic illness coach Rosaline Joffe, and popular patient advocates Christine Miserandino or butyoudontlooksick.com and Jenny Prokopy of chronicbabe.com .

Over 20 speakers from all over the country come together to provide amazing workshops that are rarely available for those with illness who are unable to travel far for a conference or sit for extended periods of time.

The host of the show is Invisible Illness Week founder, Lisa Copen, who began this week in 2002 and has produced it each year since then. Lisa is the founder of Rest Ministries which serves the chronically ill and author of many books on chronic illness, including, “Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend.”

Invisible Illness Week offers many other ways to get involved including blogging for the cause, sharing invisible illness week facts on Twitter or Facebook, a Facebook cause page, and leaving anonymous sticky notes in honor of the campaign’s theme, “Each One Can Reach One.”

To find out more visit the web site http://InvisibleIllnessWeek.com .

 National Invisible Illness Week Features Virtual Conference This Week

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Special Thanks for YOUR Help!

thank you Special Thanks for YOUR Help!I’ve heard from more of you who have gone the extra mile in spreading the word about Invisible Illness Week and wanted to say thank you!

Sarah wrote to us and let us know she had sent out some press releases. “I have submitted my invisible illness article to our local papers and quite a few national ones, including Associated Press.” Thanks, Sarah! That does help so much!

Shari said she is going to announce Chronic Invisible Illness Week at her church. “I decided to ask my church to help me spread the word about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. Hopefully they will allow me to place the announcement of Invisible Illness Awareness Week in the church bulletin. I am also going to place Rest Ministries brochures and bookmarks on the table in the lobby for people to take if the want.”

And one woman said she was speaking at her church’s retreat about invisible illness. I asked her to share how that had come about. [I feel terrible I have searched everywhere for her name and cannot find it!] She emailed me back, “We have a ‘retreat’ and it is really not a retreat, it is once a month at the church and about maybe 8 – 13 ladies.  The group and the minister, mainly the minister arranges for speakers for each meeting.  Last year in honor of Pennsylvania proclaiming Women In Pain Awareness (WIPA) Month I offered to do a workshop on WIPA. This year I am making it invisible disabilities! All prayers are appreciated.

Lisa

 Special Thanks for YOUR Help!

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Jason Shares His Outreach For Invisible Illness Week

jason sick with success Jason Shares His Outreach For Invisible Illness WeekSome of you are quite amazing in the ways you are grabbing onto Invisible Illness Week and running with it (I know, perhapd an odd expression if you’ve not ‘run’ in many years, but in your own way you ARE running! Thank you!)

One of these people is Jason Reid from sickwithsuccess.com . He also has a free ebook. At the age of 18, after nearly dying of complications from Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of the intestinal system, Jason enrolled in the prestigious journalism program at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Jason now runs Sick with Success™ a company that offers chronic illness coaching and organizational solutions.

He wrote to me and said, “I have decided to use the week of September 13th to do a media blitz on invisible illness awareness and will mention Invisible Illness Awareness Week and yourself wherever I can. I am going to try to hit radio, TV and print across Canada, particularly in the Toronto area.”

Here is the video he did (it’s great to hear a MAN’S side of the story!). Thanks, Jason, for spreading the word and using your difficult experiences to encourage others

Lisa


 Jason Shares His Outreach For Invisible Illness Week

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Invisible Illness Week Joins American Pain Foundation to Endorse the Virtual March on Washington

womanflag Invisible Illness Week Joins American Pain Foundation to Endorse the Virtual March on WashingtonSeptember is Pain Awareness Month. Pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined, and is a leading cause of disability in the United States. Yet, it remains woefully undertreated and misunderstood, resulting in needless suffering .

This September, the National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week campaign is joining with the American Pain Foundation to endorse the Virtual March on Washington to raise awareness about the barriers to accessing appropriate and effective pain management and the desperate need to improve pain care for all Americans.

Go to www.painfoundation.org/virtualmarch to participate in the march.

Opportunities to engage include:  writing your legislator, watching condition specific videos, chatting with others affected by pain and adding your voice to the 10,000 Voices campaign. You can also use resources in the PAM Advocacy Toolkit to host an event in your local community or get tips and templates for writing a letter to the editor. Go to www.APFActionNetwork.org to see how. Tell YOUR story. Join us to create change!

 Invisible Illness Week Joins American Pain Foundation to Endorse the Virtual March on Washington

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Our Favorite Resources! Associations, Foundations, and More!

paper people Our Favorite Resources! Associations, Foundations, and More!This is a list we put together with some of our favorite organizations. If you have one you would like added, leave a comment below and we will update the list soon.

(This collection of links is copyrighted. Please don’t copy and paste it to your web site.)

INTERNATIONAL________________

 Our Favorite Resources! Associations, Foundations, and More!

 

 

 

 

www.caringbridge.or

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Up – Visit Some Fabulous Invisible Illness Week Blogs

September 6, 2010 by admin  
Filed under Online Ways to Help, What's New, How to Help

typewriters invisible illness week bloggers Up   Visit Some Fabulous Invisible Illness Week BlogsMany of you have been a large part of spreading the word about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week by blogging about it for us! Thank you!

And we hope that you have gained some encouragement and inspiration in reflecting on living with invisible illness as well as reading the blogs of others.

  • So far this morning you can read over xx blog posts with people who bloggersunite Up   Visit Some Fabulous Invisible Illness Week Blogshave registered through Bloggers Unite. To read them click here at Bloggers Unite for Invisible Illness Week and then scroll down. Ont he right hand side it will say “Participating Blogs.” About 171 bloggers are registered from 2009 and they still have wonderful posts to read.
  • Bunches of people have participated in our Meme, “30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know” here.
  • If you read a post, be sure to leave a comment, even if just a short one. All of our bloggers love to hear from you and know that you stopped by!
 Up   Visit Some Fabulous Invisible Illness Week Blogs

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