This post is the last of the series on why caregivers should write their stories, caregivers of others and caregivers of yourselves. Three reasons addressed in this series are: to keep a record, to vent ("scream your words on the page rather than hurl them into the air"), and to educate and encourage others in …
Continue reading Caregivers Write Your Stories (#6) / Living with Fibromyalgia Part III
In Part II of my Living with Fibromyalgia topic*, I’ll be telling you about the new “career” I started after retiring early (age 58) from teaching nursing, a new career of “everything” fibro. Starting this adventure, I read everything my library held and everything I could find online. When I started to see duplications, I …
Continue reading Caregivers Write Your Stories (#5) / Living with Fibromyalgia Part II
What do you think of the old adage that misery loves company? I’ve found that to be true just so far. For example, I want to be able to share my challenges of fibromyalgia with others who have it, but I also don’t want to get dragged down by too many pity party stories. At …
Continue reading Caregivers Write Your Stories (#4) / Living with Fibromyalgia Part I
As a caregiver, you might be asking yourself, “Why write my caregiving stories?” I can think of several reasons that writing them would be good and fun. The first is to keep a record. All caregivers know that part of caregiving is keeping track of medications, treatments (changing dressings, taking blood pressures), doctors’ appointments, lab …
Are you almost ready to finish writing your book? I compiled ten tips that helped me finish Caring Lessons. Check them out on Julie Lindsey's blog, Musings From the Slushpile, the seventh stop on the author blog tour for Caring Lessons. Plan ahead. Think about gifts for those special nurses in your life. National Nurses …
Continue reading Caring Lessons / WOW Blog Tour – Stop #7 / Ten Tips to Finish Your Book
I learned this simple mandate, watch carbs, walk more, last fall from Laura Dion-Jones after I was a guest as a nurse author on her radio show. That encounter led to the blurb I wrote for the Caring Lessons Blog Tour Stop #4 (posted 3/14). When I told Laura about the blurb, she asked if she …
Each book reviewer on this ten-stop tour takes a slightly different approach. The blogger today, Kathy, at I am a Reader, Not a Writer asked me to answer questions. So, if you're following regularly, click on the link, and I'm sure you'll find something surprising. Like, What would I rather do: text or talk? She's …
Continue reading Caring Lessons / WOW Blog Tour – Stop #5 / Giveaway
If you've read Caring Lessons, you know Marianna. In Chapter 7, Finding a Friend, she's the "Red Hair" gal I spotted in a class I was taking and determined, immediately, that she " could be the friend I wanted. A friend with an insatiable mind for learning" (p. 78). It was Marianna who first inspired …
Continue reading Welcome: Marianna Crane and Nursing Stories
It's time to tell you that my “skip sugar” resolution for the month of December paid off. Three pounds lost. Try it. You may find a little thing—a no candy, cake, pie, or cookie deal—could work for you. However, all is not well. At my yearly physical last week, my doctor told me, even if …
Continue reading Resolutions: Weight, Classics, and Simple Things
wrote Robin Jennings on ElderChicks recently. A former teacher, she has no time to sit in the rocking chair given to her when she retired. Rather than face a classroom each day, she now sees herself as her own classroom. As a retired teacher myself, I loved the way she phrased this stage of her …
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