Why Write A Blog?

All doctors keep notes to document progress. Many patients keep diaries to aid visits with specialists: How often do I...? How much... did I? These questions and answers are important to note current situation and observe, from a wider perspective, how, if and where changes can be made.
I have been writing informally for years. Also making detailed notes about particular symptoms when necessary to give clearer vision. For a patient with any condition, making notes is an ideal way to chart progress. I think this is one of the reasons I am writing a blog. It gives me clarity, helps me view the situation almost from an outsider's position. I can think how I would give advice to someone else in this position and having the inside knowledge gives me an easier task when giving that advice.
As and when something occurs to me I sit and write, or make a quick note of the subject and come back to it later. It might be that I have had an amazing moment that I just have to record- like filling the washing machine, or talking to someone! without my mind wandering, for more than an hour. This is a fabulous thing to note; as time passes these things are forgotten- especially when insufficient memory is a big issue! To look back on notes and think- 'wow, why was that such a noteworthy event?' is very empowering. Writing it down will show that getting dressed without help is so amazing now, so that in 6-12 months time when I am walking for 20 minutes without becoming breathless the previous experience may appear insignificant, but I will be reminded how far I have come.
A noteworthy occurrence might also be not such a good thing; many is the time when I have sat down, frustrated and just needed to clear my head. It is the frustrations of ME that make the note taking just as worthwhile. Frustrations with friends or doctors who don't understand or just won't try to do anything to help. Also personal frustrations, finding it so difficult to eat with a knife and fork, or not leaving the house for months on end. At these points, just making lists of what I could do was important too.
There has been many a time when I have had to sit down and prove to myself that I am ill too; which might seem very depressing and negative, but for an ME patient going through a good few months, the dips and frustrations can be forgotten and the possibility of a crash from 'overdoing' it can be denied. This is so important, as a pragmatic and realistic patient is the one who finds the right path. By occasionally writing down what I can't do I have really helped myself to realise that I need help, that I need to find recovery- it is not going to find me.
So this blog is ideal therapy for myself!
But most importantly it is to show how this illness really affects the person and it is meant to give hope to those who have the illness and help them believe that recovery is a possibility.