Raising awareness through the awards programme, x

Getting nominated for a blogging award is awesome! It’s not why any of us become health activists, mind you. We’re driven simply to help people with certain health conditions – to know that we’ve helped in some way is the all the reward we were hoping for and all the reward we need. But apart from making your fave health activists go all warm and melty and start claiming that “no, no, of course I’m not crying, I’ve just been cutting onions, that’s all. Honest!”, it also means that other people out there, maybe other patients who’ve been looking for us, get to hear about links to reliable websites, blogs and research papers. In the case of CRPS it also means being able to let other people out there know how to help try to avoid it developing in the first place. Wow!

I wrote recently about nominating for your fave Health Activists online as it’s the season of WEGO Health Activist Awards again. Share the love this winter. Trust me, these nominations really warm the heart because none of us do this for any return, all health activists do what they do because we want to help others. The ultimate return is that we manage to deliver writing / links / research information / chuckles that help. Helping is truly it’s own reward, anything else is extra.

So when I got nominated for a fourth award I pretty much keeled over in happy surprise!

Here’s the awards that you wonderful, lovely, kind, sparkly people have nominated me for…

Wowee!

But the awards are also a wonderful way to raise awareness. CRPS, Dysautonomia and Hypermobility are more common than generally thought and there are fellow patients out there still looking for reliable information.

I have found that other bloggers I’ve met along my journey are also voting for other activists just as I have been. I love that there is no unhealthy competition, we all share the same aim – to raise awareness and help others. To help as many people as we can.

This year the first three bloggers for each award with the most endorsements automatically become finalists. Nominees can be endorsed by clicking on the button under their picture on their nominations page, (e.g. mine is here, and all other nominees are being added to the directory as well). It turns out that we can each endorse a nominee once a day, and the suggestion is that we ask our readers and friends to endorse us once a day every day! Cripes!

Of course the activists which have the most common conditions will have many more readers owing to there being many more patients. Which leaves the rarer and lesser known conditions behind.

Last year there were six finalists for each award so this year the remaining three finalists for each award will be chosen by the judges on a points system. So there is still potential for a good health activist, with good presentation and information, to get chosen by the judges.

So… I’m crossing my fingers and asking you, my lovely readers, to click on the ‘endorse’ button for any CRPS and/or Dysautonomia bloggers that have been nominated who you’d like to support for this years awards.

Big hugs and thanks from me,

x

It’s health activist nominations time!

Yes, it’s that time of year again. It’s time for the third annual health activist awards when we get to vote for all of our fave health activists / bloggers out there who have made a difference to us patients. 😀

I’ve been happily voting for bloggers, it’s so fab’ to get to share the love 😀

All you need to do is follow the link here and add the weblog (or Twitter or Facebook information depending on where they write and post), and click on the award that you are nominating them for. You can do so anonymously if you prefer. When asked for the nominee’s contact info’.. an email, Facebook page or Twitter account are all ways for WEGO to let them know that they’ve been nominated.

Of course if you want to vote for little ole me I would not complain! 😉 In fact some of you must’ve been busy as WEGO Health have informed me that I have been nominated for three awards…. wheeeeee!

You can ‘endorse’ me on my nomination page if ya like. Only one of the awards I’ve been nominated for is showing on there at the moment, though, so here’s the relevant prettification for this post…

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I started by nominating someone for a health geekery award! There’s one blogger who ‘geeks out’ at research even more than I do so I just had to get in there and vote, hehe Go on, share the love people! 😀

x

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I like to be useful!

I’ve had a huge spike in blog visitors over the last few days and the popular post getting viewed a lot has been my representation of the McGill Pain Scale. My version is unusual because I’ve added an additional figure onto the scale – that of Fibromyalgia. It’s not a figure that we usually come across, and I found the information in one research paper which means that it’s a ball-park figure (only one sample group from one piece of research) but can still be helpful to some patients to share with others as many people still incorrectly think of Fibro’ as some sort of psychosomatic condition. It’s not. At all. There is plenty of scientific evidence to show to any doubters, but sometimes being able to show a quick piccy of the pain scale to demonstrate that the pain is scientifically ‘real’ can be a speedy and simple way to help someone to re-jig their understanding and treat Fibro’ patients with more thought.

The post is by far the most popular one to date (it includes CRPS as well). I am so pleased that fellow patients out there are finding it helpful. That is why I started this weblog in the first place, to share information and be as helpful as I can from my spot on the sofa with my laptop and my occasional brain!

I didn’t realise that a link to the post had been included on the Fibromyalgia News website, though. Not until yesterday, that is. Wow! Thank-you. That is good feedback suggesting that I’m on the right tracks and am managing to be useful. Exactly what I hoped I could do. 😀

There’s lots more to write about still, I shall keep on writing for as long as I can still be useful. Big hugs to you all, x

Thank-you ‘Blogging’ for choosing to feature Elle and the Auto Gnome, x

Thanks you lovely peeps at the ‘Blogging’ for featuring my blog yesterday for your ‘Featured Blog Friday’. It was lovely to be acknowledged, and with such lovely and encouraging words, too. 🙂

I shared the link to my blog with the words: This blog exists to help support fellow patients of two conditions very poorly understood by doctors and often misdiagnosed and mistreated.

And ‘Blogging’ said:

“Thank you to all who have entered for a chance to be #FBF [Featured Blog Friday]… This Friday’s winner is… elleandtheautognome.wordpress.com. Filled with insight and humor, this blog is worth reading and our #FBF!!…about living with CRPS and Dysautonomia and finding joy through it. How informative and inspirational!!”

How lovely are they? *glee* They even told me that they appreciate my optimism in a most commonly difficult situation and admire the “silliness” I write about. “Stay strong, stay smiling, and keep blogging!” Darn tootin’, I will! 😀

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…. silliness rocks! Thanks guys, It was so lovely of you, x

WEGO Health Activist Nominations

Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh myyyyyyy! I’d been contacted by WEGO Health to let me know that I’ve been nominated for the Rookie of the Year Award a wee while ago, but today I opened up my emails to find several messages from WEGO about nominations for three other awards as well and I am currently still on a floaty cloud of happy surprise!

Thank-you lovely readers for being so kind as to nominate me for several awards for WEGO’s 2012 Health Activist Awards. I am totally blown away by your kindness and your ever wonderful and heart-warming support. I cannot find the words to describe being transported from a morning of tired slogging through my rather bland porridge (I think my tastebuds may have got used to me accidentally tipping far too much cinnamon on, my hands were less wobbly today and my tastebuds were rather sorry about that!) to “Wheeeeeeeee! Oh good grief! How blummin’ lovely are theeeeey?” *wibble*

I have now been informed that not only have you nominated me for 2012 Rookie of the Year, but also for 2012 Health Activist Hero, 2012 Unsung Hero and 2012 Hilarious Health Activist! Wow! I’m totally blown away! Thank-you so much, I am challenged to find the words to adequately express my feelings as I’m still in a state of happy surprise! (With my ANS it’ll take a while for the wibbles to settle down, too, so I may as well go with it and grin like an idiot for a few hours, eh?)!

I want to say to keep voting for your fave health activists online because there are some truly amazing people that I’ve met out here in the online ‘cloud’, but the voting closed on December the 31st and so now it’s over to the WEGO Health judges to get some mega-reading in. Lawks, they’re gonna be busy! There are some amazing bloggers out there and I salute them all. I’ve met wonderful fellow bloggers and fellow patients since starting this blog and there are no words to adequately express the strength, love and beauty that is apparent in your words and actions online. I am honoured to be counted among you and I adore the support and sharing online that helps so very many patients living with a massive variety of health conditions. Each and every individual doing this makes a positive difference and has priceless value because of it, xxx

Nominated for WEGO Health’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ award!

I’ve just received a rather lovely message on my Facebook blog page from Susan Mees of Wego Health. She just popped in to inform me that I’d been nominated for their Rookie of the Year award 2012.

*gasp*….. oh-my-goodness…. followed by *gleeeeee*

The award that I’ve been nominated for.

The Health Activist awards were launched last year in 2011 and I enjoyed nominating my favourite bloggers for the amazing work that they do sharing information, and making me smile on my slightly wobbly days.

Since then, my world has changed a little. I’m now a blogger myself. I write about my conditions to share information that I have found, to share experiences, to let fellow patients out there know that they’re not alone and to share some laughs because, as you know, silliness is a very important part of my pain management regime! 😉

I have discovered that I love to write, which fortunately is something that I can do whilst sitting, or even lying down! Admittedly, I cannot write whilst my brain is absent, (which is a fair amount of the time), but this blog has been a part of me since I first signed up to WordPress to create it.

I had no idea, though, just how much a part of me this blog would become. How much a part of my life it would be. Or how many wonderful people I would meet along the way as a result.

In life, different people in varying contexts see aspects, but not all, of who we are. And yet this blog is me: the patient, the researcher, the joker, the pragmatist, the health activist, the geek, the sci-fi fan, the Tai Chi student, the rock chick, the used-to-be-an-artist,…. and more. For those of you who have been readers of this blog for a while, you have already begun to know me as my long-term friends know me. I share who I am through my writing.

Thank-you. sooo much, for the nomination. And thank-you for being so encouraging and supportive. I’m feeling a bit soppy as I write this, so I’ll just go into my virtual kitchen and make you some tea whilst I pull myself together!

Please do support the health activists out there who are blogging their hearts out and doing their best to make a difference in some small way. Every one of us does this because we want to be helpful, to make some sort of a difference, and to reach out to give a virtual hug and some pom-pom-cheering encouragement to all of our fellow patients and their loved ones.

There are various different categories available, here’s a few blogger-related examples from WEGO’s nomination page (the link is below):

Best Kept Secret – Awarded to someone in the online health community who is doing great work but hasn’t gotten a lot of attention.

Health Activist Hero – Awarded to an inspiring, supportive, and knowledgeable Health Activist who has truly changed people’s lives.

Hilarious Health Activist Award – Awarded to the Health Activist who makes you laugh alongside their advocacy.  Nominate your favorite comedian.

Ms/Mr. Congeniality – Awarded to someone who always has a kind word, a positive note, and a virtual hug.

Paperboy Award – Awarded to the Health Activist who always delivers the latest and greatest health news and research.

Rookie of the Year – Awarded to a Health Activist who came on the scene in 2012 but has inspired the entire community.

Silver Stethoscope – Awarded to a healthcare professional who utilizes social media, online community, and technology to make the world a better place.

Trailblazer Award – Awarded to the Health Activist who is ahead of every curve, excited by new technology, and encourages everyone to join them.

Unsung Hero Award – Awarded to the member of your community who is always helping, advising, and sharing – but may not know how amazing and valuable they are.

There are some fantastic bloggers out there so please do send in your nominations because, as I’ve just found out, just getting nominated is a wonderful bit of feedback to warm the heart and make us grin in happiness. 😀

I’m not asking you to vote for me, (although I won’t complain if you do, of course!), but I am just suggesting that you follow your heart and show your appreciation for those bighearted bloggers out there. If their heart is involved in what they do as much as I find mine to be, then it will mean a lot to them. I shall, of course, be nominating a few bloggers myself, xx

Here’s the link to make your nominations, you can nominate as many as you want for various awards, (bloggers, professionals online, twitterers, vloggers ….etc) and you can even nominate one website/blog for multiple awards….

http://info.wegohealth.com/health-activist-awards-2012/

More sharing of my disability article, thank-you again, xx

After writing yesterday’s thank-you I discovered that news.anygator.com had also shared my UK disability benefits blog post. Many thanks for sharing the word, xx

http://news.anygator.com/?q=incapacity+benefit&market=GB&Campaign=incapacity+benefit&Network=Search&kw=incapacity+benefit&ad=12427291269&SiteTarget&camptype=sh

Sharing of disability articles and information, thank-you, xx

It was gratifying to see my last post picked up on the 8th August by Jane Young at scoop.it/t/disability-issues because it is a post which is important to me with regards to the protection of my fellow vulnerable patients.

Thank-you, Jane Young, x

Most able-bodied people in Britain seem to genuinely not realise what is happening to the disabled population and I was trying to inform and possibly even help to redress that balance a little, xxx

Open University “Blog of the Month”, awwww, x

Hello all,

Yes I have hit my study deadline and am having a brief study-free hiatus to  catch up on my ‘to-do’ list!

Though you may have noticed that rather than sorting out my accounts or tidying up the house, I am indeed on WordPress… oops! 😉 tee hee

The studying is going well and I’m really enjoying getting stuck into it. It’s not the work itself but merely the workload that can be an issue at times. There is so much to do in the timespan for this particular module. But as this is a final masters module, it is different to any other course I’ve studied as there is no longer a clear guideline of what to do when. Instead, it is self directed study and, me being me, I want to do soooo much. So it is my own fault that I have lots of work to do, hehe. Good thing I picked a topic that I’m passionate about, eh?!

I also received a message the other day from a lovely lady at the Open University asking me if I would mind if she posted this blog as the OU’s “Blog of the Month”. I felt so heartwarmed at the request. This weblog has a life and purpose of it’s own, so of course I said “yes”. I am still so touched that she felt it worthy of a mention in the OU newsletter that gets emailed out to students and alumni.

I’ve snuck off from my non-study catch-up because I’d like to say hello and thank-you to all of my OU peers who followed the link to have a look-see. I’ve received some wonderful and encouraging messages from you and I had no idea that saying “yes” would result in sooo many views. It was truly an astounding and heart-warming few days. Thank-you so much, xx

I am now formulating a plan for how to juggle the study and blog a little better, because I don’t want to keep having to be temporarily awol whilst heading for the deadlines! This studying doesn’t half train you up in some ‘transferable skills’! 🙂

Love and hugs to all my readers, I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people through my writing here. Wishing you all well, xx