Day 30: Month's End

Day 30 – Friday, Nov. 30
Recap NHBPM
OR
Write about why you’re awesome

I started this month as a way to participate in NaNoWriMo without actually having a novel in my head or the wherewithal to write 50,000 words. (Or have I? I suppose I could paste all my posts into a single document and do a word count, but I don't think I have.) Instead of writing every day towards a novel, I would write a blog post a way and revive my health blog. I didn't know what topics I would write about, but I figured I'd find something.

On Day 3, I discovered the existence of NHBPM, and had a set of prompts to work with, and a whole community to support me. So that was great. I started out putting down in words some of my more philosophical thoughts about my illness. In Day 4: Already Broken, I wrote about my childhood cancer, and my mother's fibromyalgia. Day 5, I begged everyone that interacts with the chronically ill to Assume Good Faith. The post that was hardest for me to write, but also the most liberating, was on Day 8: Dear M.E.

On Day 9, I took a break from writing about health to celebrate the victories that gay people won in the November 2012 election.

On Day 13, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. This diagnosis led to a decline in the length and quality of my posts - not so much from the stress of the news, which hadn't terribly surprised me, but because of the symptom flare that had followed. I had spent several hours out of bed to attend the doctor and the tender point pressure test was intensely painful.

In addition to the flare, I changed the dosage of one of my medication by doctor's advice. The medication change made me moody and irritable, and it combined with a general weariness of trying to write every day. I kept up with it because I didn't want to fail at the challenge after having gone on for so long. I feel like the rest of the month started to show a downturn in my outlook, but perhaps that's my imagination.

On Day18, I wrote advice to spouse carers. On Day 22, I wrote a Thanksgiving post. Day 25 was all about audiobooks. On Day 27, I wrote was was probably my saddest post: Somewhere. Yesterday I wrote about Blessings of being sick.

And today... is the end. 

I didn't recap every post here - just the ones I felt were the most interesting to me to write and to look back on. But I did actually stick it out. Even on the two 'get out of post free' days, I still posted something. I am very proud of myself for sticking it out.

But I'm really glad this is over! I don't think I could do a 45 day challenge. I'm ready for a rest. 

So what's the future for this blog?

First, I'm going to take a week off. Maybe a fortnight. I need it. Then, I'll be back, but not on a daily schedule. Perhaps once or twice a week? I haven't decided yet. But I want to keep this up. I want this record of my health journey and my marriage and my life.

#NHBPM