Friday, September 18, 2009

Cutting Back

Here's the message I just posted to my Facebook account:
Due to health limitations, I will be dropping out of most things on facebook and other forums and social networking sites I have been part of. You may see me post an occassional update here, but I won't be reading much and may only very rarely reply.

My goal is to spend only about 10-15 minutes online each day, including emails, business. twitter, everything! Since I typically spend up to several hours per day online, this is a DRAMATIC change for me and will be hard to stick to, but for the sake of my family and trying to restore my health, it is something I need to commit to.

My main focus will be keeping up my 3 blogs:
http://www.HarvestingHope.blogspot.com - encouragement for life's trials
http://www.InnerBeautyGirlz.com - beauty tips and tricks, mineral makeup info, sales and discount codes
http://www.InfertiltiyMom.blogspot.com - my most personal blog with reflections on infertiltiy, loss, adoption, ongoing health updates related to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ( CFS / CFIDS / ME/CFS ), motherhood, homeschooling and my life in a nutshell

Don't presume I know what's happening in your life just because you posted it to my facebook page. You can leave comments for me at any of those blogs and I should see them even if I am not able to reply. I do not want you to feel that I am abandoing my friendships, I'm simply trying to get healthy and this is part of what it's going to take. Thank you for your understanding.


The bottom line is that I need to work on getting healthy. At my appointment with Dr. Montoya at Stanford, we spent a full 90 minutes talking with the doctor. One thing he emphasized was that stress, of any kind, can worsen my illness. He talked a lot about emotional and mental stress and we concluded that I spend way too much time on the computer. He challenged me to take a year and cut out absolutely everything I do not have to do, in hopes of gaining another 40 years of better health if I can help hault the progression of permanent cell damage in my brain and body now. (For sanity, I still "need" to write as it is one of my primary coping skills, so I don't consider blogging to be totally optional right now, but it needs to be a tool I can use when I need it and not something I have to do on anyone else's demands or timeline.)

Didn't want to "drop off the planet" without giving some explanation, but I will be in a lot less direct or personal connection with many friends for a season. I may or may not post frequently and when you do see a post it may be something I've prescheduled days or weeks in advance of when it actually posts here, so just because you see a post pop up on a blog doesn't even tell you that I was or was not online that day.

1 comment:

Jeanne said...

Jenni,

GOOD FOR YOU!

Taking control of your schedule and cutting out the things that you can is a fantastic way of preserving your energy.

There are so many wonderful sites online that it is easy to get drawn in to do "everything".

Good for you for taking the steps you need to take and for giving people that relatively brief but still detailed and excellent explanation of how things will be from here on out.

By the way, please do NOT feel you need to reply to this message in any way. I do not want to add to your workload... just congratulate you on implementing self-care measures to hopefully feel better.

I'm sending positive energy your way.

Blessings,

Jeanne