This Blog, ILD Support Groups and Type A Personalities

Michael just asked me if I ever go back and read past blogs to see if I am in a better place emotionally. Honestly, I do read them. When I check my stats and notice a lot of people are reading a particular blog, I go back and read it. I notice my writing style and how passionate I was to getting the facts on paper, so to speak. After blogging my whole story those first few months, I remember feeling a huge weight lifted from me. It now was all out of my body and placed somewhere else. Into this blog.

I think I am still emotionally solid about it all but I do notice that I have learned so much since those first years trying to deal with living with a fatal diagnosis. I was so sick. I didn't really understand what was happening with my body and lungs. Thankfully, my university hospital offered the first ILD Support Group in the world which was committed to educating us about the diseases but also offered a place for us to share our experiences with the diseases.

During last month's meeting, Sally told us that she receives requests from universities all over the world on how to structure an ILD Support Group. They also want to know what type of patient shows up. Does the group become reduced to a "whining" session? How many people come to each and every meeting? What are they like?

We laughed when we realized that we were all Type A personalities, which makes sense. We are people to take control of a problem by educating ourselves about it.

So that, dear Reader is what you are doing by reading this blog. Educating yourself not only about the latest medical research and the facts about this group of diseases, but emotionally how to deal with this new challenge in your life. You, too, can learn to live well with a bad diagnosis.