Ending Another Year of Blogging

 

On December 30, 2007 , I started writing this blog. It began as a place to share my story, support women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in New Jersey and to raise awareness of the disease. It has developed over time to be a place where I not only share my personal news but also share all aspects of cancer research from bench studies to clinical trial results. I have also reported news about latest treatments after attending oncology meetings.

This year's popular posts were 

Ten Years as a Community and Chat 

ASCO23 Day 4 (6/5/23) Gyn Cancer Posters, Poster Discussion session & Misc topics

The Importance of Obstacles - 18 Years Later

Authoring this blog has opened doors for me in cancer advocacy and I appreciate all of you who have read it through the years. It has been a privilege.

 

Wishing you good health and happiness in 2024!

See you next year.  

 

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucky 13

chadheathcott.com

For me, 13 is a lucky number. I lived for over thirty years in a home with an address number of 13. And today, I celebrate writing this blog, all 1147 posts, over the past 13 years. 

As I approached this blogging anniversary I admit I have been thinking that it may be time to stop blogging. There have been many times over the past year when I had writer's block. I just couldn't come up with an idea that I thought would interest my readers or provide any insight into living and surviving ovarian cancer. 

Being so many years out of treatment, I was starting to feel that my experience was no longer relevant to women who now have options to use Bevacizumab or Parp Inhibitors as maintenance therapies. I could read about the different types of therapies but I never took any maintenance therapy. This year women are struggled not only with a cancer diagnosis but having treatment during Covid -19.  I did go for my annual cancer center visit in September but my appointment was never delayed or impacted in any way by COVID 19. 

Then a few things happened. 

I have had the opportunity to speak to two women on a monthly basis since July as a Cancer Hope Network volunteer. (I've been a CHN volunteer for over 10 years now.) While I can't share their stories, I will share that when I called them last week to wish them a Merry Christmas,  one had good news because of good scan results while the other had not such good news.  Yet both were glad I called so they could share their news. Both thanked me for listening and being available to answer their questions.

Then a women diagnosed with ovarian cancer reached out to me via direct message on Twitter. I answered a few of her questions and said I have written a blog for a number of years if she would like to read it and shared the link with her.  A few days later I got another DM from her and she commented on how reading a few posts were so helpful.

Lastly,  a fellow cancer advocate commented on my previous post "Stay the Course". She said "So often we think we have to do something huge or make sweeping changes. Sometimes, "staying the course" is enough. " 

So I will do just that.  I will stay the course and continue to write this blog in the hopes that I reach just one woman.

May all my readers have a Happy and Healthy and Safe 2021 !

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing.

12 Years a Blogger

This post will be my last one of 2019 and it marks my twelfth year writing this blog. This blog has opened doors to so many other advocacy activities and I am grateful for those opportunities.

I had some wonderful advocacy opportunities this year.

I continued to blog for Globeathon. My latest post was advice on Holidays Past .

I have become more active as an ASCO member, too. In June, I spoke with Dr Elizabeth Dickson at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago on the needs of gynecologic cancer patients (http://womenofteal.blogspot.com/2019/06/asco-reporting.html). And in late September, I traveled with other ASCO members to ask Congress for support of three bills that could impact the lives of people diagnosed with cancer (http://womenofteal.blogspot.com/2019/10/asco-advocacy-summit.html). I also became the patient representive on ASCO's  Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee and the Social Media Workgroup.

I continue to  serve on the Scientific Review Board at Rutgers Cancer Center of New Jersey and am also a patient advocate on the Community Advisory Council. In September, I presented my story as an ovarian cancer survivor at the Gynecologic Cancer Awareness event at RCINJ as well as to a class of social work students at Rutgers University. 

Working with other Twitter Cancer Community leaders and social media experts,  I helped author Organizing Online Health Content: Developing Hashtag Collections for Healthier Internet-Based People and Communities 
JCO Clinical Informatics  https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/CCI.18.00124


I also continued to co-moderate the #gyncsm Community on Twitter chats with Christina Lizaso and covered some really important topics such as  Maintenance therapies, PARP inhibitors and the origination of high grade serous ovarian cancer. 


I look forward to seeing what 2020 will bring to my advocacy, this blog and the future of ovarian cancer research. 


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

Nine Years Ago

Has it really been nine years? I never thought when I started this blog on December 30, 2007 that I would be writing it so many years later. But here I am so here I write.

This year was not my most productive - this is my 41st post of the year. That is an average of only 3.4 posts per month.  In July I only wrote one post. In June,  I posted more than three because I couldn't wait to share all the research news I heard at the ASCO annual meeting. Attending that meeting as a survivor/ research advocate is a real privilege and I recommend that if you are a research advocate you apply for a scholarship to attend. Then in November I  tried the WEGOHealth Health Activist Writers Month Challenge but I ended up only writing seven posts. But I enjoyed the prompts that I did respond to.

My most popular posts of 2016 were:

A Rudderless Ship

Apr 26, 2016

The Days of ASCO- Liquid Biopsies

Jun 13, 2016

Between a Rock and Hard Place - Surveillance after...

Aug 24, 2016

So why did I blog less this year than any of the previous 8 years? I think it is due to an increase in my advocacy work over the past 12 months. I continue to  co-moderate the #gyncsm chat  (2nd Wed. of the month 9pm ET) and post on the communities blog (http://gyncsm.blogspot.com/).  This year we ran a survey so I worked with Christina ( @btrfly12) developing and analyzing the data from that survey to guide our future chats.We draft questions, invite guests, develop resources and promote this monthly chat as well as sharing on Twitter important developments of interest to the gynecologic cancer community on a daily basis. 

As a member of the  Board of the Kaleidoscope of Hope Ovarian Cancer Foundation, which raises funds for ovarian cancer research I oversee the social media (Facebook, Twitter) and the Foundation's website content.  I also volunteer with ASCO, serving as a patient representative on a tumor board and guideline panels.  Then I spent time in October working on a presentation and attending the AZ Patient Summit in Portugal. 

And of course time with family( always my first priority)  cut into the time I would spend writing blog posts. There are times I question whether or not I should continue writing this blog.  But I always come back to my original goal for the blog - to help other women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Even if I help and support one woman a year I feel I've accomplished something.

So I will keep on writing.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing! 

Seven Years a Blogger

Yesterday, December 30th marked the seventh anniversary of writing this blog.

I started this blog back in December of 2007 because I wanted to  share my experience and information about ovarian cancer with other women diagnosed with the disease in NJ. At the time I was not sure I would live to see my 5th "cancerversary". But next year, 2015, I will celebrate my 10th "cancerversary". My blog has also grown and now reaches women in the US as well as internationally ( UK, Germany, Russia, Canada France, etc.)

Some of my most popular posts this year were:

• Design Thinking and Healthcare- My MedX IDEO Challenge Experience ( over 900 page views)
• I'm Grateful For
• Losses and Friendships
• Ovarian Cancer Facts for NJ

I know this year I have not posted at the frequency I have posted in the past. One reason why has been my increased involvement with the #gyncsm community. In late 2013, Christina Lizaso and I founded the community for women diagnosed with gynecologic cancers as well as their caregivers and health care providers. You may find us on twitter at @gyncsm . We offer monthly chats on topics of interest to the community ( 2nd Wed of the month 9pm EST) . Christina and I research each topic we discuss, develop questions, find reliable resources for our followers as well as guest speakers. I also continue to write for our blog (http://gyncsm.blogspot.com/) which provides info about each chat, links to transcripts and resources related to each topic. In addition to the chat information, I have posted about clinical trials, World Ovarian Cancer Day and reported on the results of a survey we did of #gyncsm followers. In October this year,  we also partnered with Smart Patients an online platform to offer a place for our community members to discuss our topics in more the 140 characters.

In addition to being a patient reviewer for PCORI , a Survivors Day Committee committee member, volunteer with the Kaleidoscope of Hope Foundation, and e-patient scholar at Stanford MedX I was  a busy wife, mom and grandma.

I look forward to continuing to blog (hopefully more frequently) in 2015.

I wish all my readers a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

Celebrating my Blog's 6th Anniversary

Six years ago today I started this blog. My goal was to talk about my journey as an ovarian cancer survivor and share information with women diagnosed with the disease in NJ.

My blog has come a long way since 2007. I now cover more research news and scientific meeting highlights. Over the past year, I have written about my recurrence anxiety,  research news, fundraisers and provided information about the new #gyncsm twitter chat that I co-moderate. I also posted pictures from my trip to Perth, Australia and the birth of my second grandson.

This month NOCC shared my post titled Advice From My Christmas Past on their Facebook page. I had 200 new visits to that page which lead to a December page view total for my blog of over 3000. I appreciate NOCC's support of my blog.

Thank you to all my readers for your comments, shares and e-mails . 

May you all have a Happy and Healthy 2014. 

Even after over 800 posts I look forward to providing you with the latest research news and events of interest to ovarian cancer survivor and caregivers in New Jersey.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

4 Years of Blogging -

Four years ago today I started this blog. I had no idea when I started this blog that it would reach more people than my family and friends and some fellow ovarian cancer survivors in New Jersey.

Thanks to the statistics the Blogger software started keeping in May 2009, I know that my blog has reached far from the Garden State. I have also been read in Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Canada, South Korea, France , the Netherlands, Iran and Australia and I have between 1,500 and 2,200 page views a month. My most popular posts have been about the HE4 blood test, weather and test anxiety and chemotherapy drug shortages. It appears that my page view numbers have increased since I began writing more consistently about Ovarian cancer research news. Or maybe the recent jump in readership may be to my new @womenofteal twitter account. With every new post I write I supply a link to the blog. My plan in the year ahead is to keep writing about research news and to provide links to abstracts and journal articles.I guess four years later I can officially call myself a blog writer.

I thank all you for being here the past year as I have shared my personal ups and downs. Writing about the passing of my dear Aunt Dora and Uncle Bruno helped to ease the pain and heartache I felt. I also appreciate the opportunity to write about and honor women I knew (Monica, Jeanne, Jo, Gaynor, Sarah, Patty, Janet, Jayne, Ellen, Courtney) who lost their lives to ovarian cancer.

I also appreciate the opportunity to share the good news- attending ASCO, travels around the country and especially the birth of my grandson ,John, in September. What a blessing he is in my life.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed writing it. I look forward to writing for you in 2012.

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing!