It's been a few weeks since my last post, and I would like to get back to blogging on a regular basis. How regular remains to be seen but certainly more than once every 6 months, which has been the largest gap between entries since I began this blog.
I haven't blogged much this year for a variety of reasons. One reason is that there has been a lot going on in real life, so in my virtual life I took to tweeting more and writing at length less. Another is that I've been exhausted, and writing at length hasn't been coming as easily as it has other times.
So I have taken a break, even if that meant having to put off writing a number of posts which I originally intended to do. I think it was necessary to take a step back and use my energy elsewhere for a while - including discussing tickborne diseases in other venues outside of this space.
I'm hoping to make a reentry and post more often as it works for me. It's going to be an experiment to see how frequently I can manage it because I can't predict what the future is going to bring between happenings in my life and the status of my health, but I want to give it another try even though at times I feel like no one reads this blog (though clearly they do, as Blogger's stats indicate several thousand pageviews each month even if I don't post anything in a long time) and few people comment lately.
My intent is to begin working through these topics, order to be determined:
- Thoughts on the trailer for the film, Canary In a Coal Mine, and how the film may differ from Under Our Skin
- Thoughts on the difference been disability and capability and where they intersect
- The "it's all in your head" diagnosis: why it does everyone a disservice and can even be deadly
- So about that 10-20% of Lyme disease patients with persisting symptoms after initial treatment...
- Individual issue posts in response to the anti-science letter Panel 1 items:
- Sexual transmission of tickborne diseases: Is there evidence?
- Whether or not Lyme disease Borrelia are restricted geographically
- Subjective versus objective symptoms in Lyme disease
- Lyme disease as a trigger for other conditions
- How common tickborne coinfections are
- The pathobiology of Borrelia burgdorferi (this may be 3 separate posts)
- Serological testing and its value in diagnosis when there is no EM rash
- The use of IgM testing
- Serological sensitivity in Lyme disease based on gender
- (Will not be addressing treatment topics on this panel at this time.)
- The who, what, where, how, and why of blogging here: Should the focus change?
So, I have a number of posts here I would like to write, and hopefully the energy and focus can be found to move forward.
This work by Camp Other is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
I'm reading your posts...I've learned a lot from you. I am one of those 10-20% persisters.
ReplyDeletehey camp, I really love your posts. I find them very balanced, thoughtful and reasonable. I appreciate your research and attempt to explain some of the more complex medical and scientific topics. And I appreciate that you are coming from a position of a Lyme patient, who has experienced the inanity of the current treatment paradigm.
ReplyDeleteSo, please take those 'hits' as 'thumbs up' - and don't stop blogging! What are your other venues, besides tweeting? In case we need a camp-other-fix.
Thank you -
misty
Yay! Looking forward to more posts!
ReplyDeleteOn Nov. 4, lakegirl wrote:
ReplyDelete"I'm reading your posts...I've learned a lot from you. I am one of those 10-20% persisters."
Hi lakegirl, and welcome to Camp Other blog!
Thanks for reading along. If you see anything in particular you'd like to discuss, please let me know. I'm also open to topic ideas, but as you can see, I have enough topics to keep me busy for a little while.
I apologize for not responding to your comment sooner - I'll try to respond quicker next time. Offhand, how did you find this blog?
CO
On Nov. 4 misty wrote:
ReplyDelete"hey camp, I really love your posts. I find them very balanced, thoughtful and reasonable. I appreciate your research and attempt to explain some of the more complex medical and scientific topics."
Thanks, misty. I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. I try to explain some of the more complex material because it has come up in discussion in Lyme disease patient circles - and also because it helps me in educating myself. I hope that as time goes on I will get a better grasp of the research out there as there are many levels of complexity and unknowns.
"And I appreciate that you are coming from a position of a Lyme patient, who has experienced the inanity of the current treatment paradigm."
Being placed in this position is a large part of what inspired me to blog. And while I appreciated science before I became a Lyme disease patient, becoming one encouraged me to learn more because it was personal. The trick, of course, is to read what I can and recognize where I might have blind spots and address them; where I might have bias and own up to it and address that.
"So, please take those 'hits' as 'thumbs up' - and don't stop blogging! What are your other venues, besides tweeting? In case we need a camp-other-fix."
:) I'm mainly on Twitter this past year. I've made a few appearances on Lymenet Europe and had exchanges with Dr. MacDonald and others. I've been actively engaged in discussions and arguments on some newspapers/Disqus with articles about Lyme disease. Other than that, I haven't been on any other venues, and took a step back more to either Tweet, deal with things in real life, or rest and not deal. Sometimes you just have to take a break.
CO
Your blog is my favorite Lyme related blog. Your insight and fact finding abilities are what I like to read. I don't respond much but I do enjoy your posts and admire your tenacity and inquiring mind. I hope you can keep up the good work. Thank you!
ReplyDelete