Delurking, and Reasons for Blogging

January 8-12 is Delurking Week. I believe it was originally Paper Napkin's idea. She posted a few icons for people to use, and I thought these two were funny.





I write my blog for three main reasons:

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First, I write for myself and my family, to chronicle our life and my thoughts about it. That's already been immensely helpful, both as an outlet and processing point for me.

It's also helpful as a reference. It's nice to be able to go back and check my records of what day we had that doctor's appointment, or when it was that Baby E screamed all day and what was unusual about the day.

That was immensely helpful in making my charts and records for the doctors. I've been able to use several of my blog posts to help Baby E's doctors better understand her condition. When I started bringing that kind of information to appointments was when we began to make progress.

My writing brought results when just telling the doctors verbally wasn't working.

Secondly, I write to help other people. My posts about the controversy and potential dangers surrounding Airborne Formula and about how to sidecar a crib receive more hits and links than all the rest of my posts put together. People seem to find them helpful, and that's exciting to me. I also get a lot of hits from people searching for help with their child's allergies, or a baby that screams all the time.

If anything I write here can provide any measure of help or comfort, that alone makes it valuable.

That's a large part of why I post so much about the research I do about allergies. I feel it's important to chronicle the difficulties of getting information about allergens and appropriate treatment from everyone: the ignorance and lack of cooperation ranging from pharmacists, doctors and other medical professionals to food companies and drug manufacturers is appalling.

I tend to think that somehow, if the general public realizes how horrendously difficult it is to find out what's actually in our food and medicines, or how hard it is to get doctors to take allergies seriously, look past statistics and see the actual patient, people might be more willing to help change the system.

I hope that my blog will help to build awareness and indirectly become a catalyst for change.

Maybe it will be small: Maybe some parent with a food-allergic child will learn how to push harder and get more answers when they call food companies. Maybe some doctor or nurse will learn that there is value in listening a little more closely to the patient's concerns. Maybe some grownup will be more careful about the food or toys they offer unthinkingly to someone else's child. Even the smallest result helps to make my efforts worthwhile.

Finally, I do my journaling online, in a blogging format, because I enjoy the interactions with commenters and other bloggers.

Since I have cable internet, it's online all the time. Blogger notifies me via e-mail of new comments on the blog. My computer automatically checks e-mail for me every 5 minutes.

So, every time I walk by the computer I check to see if anyone has commented. I may not always be able to respond to every comment, though I try, but you can be assured that every comment is read and appreciated.

I love having people comment on my blog. It makes me feel like there is actually someone out there reading; I'm not just talking to myself.

More than anything else, this post is a thank-you to my readers and commenters. Sometimes your comments make me laugh. Sometimes they bring tears to my eyes. Sometimes they help me get through the day.

Strangely enough, the support, advice and just the sheer presence of a bunch of mostly-strangers is a special and enriching part of my life.

It still flabbergasts me that anyone would find my life interesting enough to read my blog somewhat regularly, but somehow some of you do. Thank you. And thank you for your comments, even if it's just leaving a blogstone (o). Your comments make my day, if only for the fact that they let me know you were here.

A comment means that a reader became engaged enough with whatever they read to want to leave some kind of mark that they were here. That's always exciting.

Anyway, I totally understand that some people aren't comfortable commenting. But if you'd like to comment, please feel free.

Don't ever feel like your comment won't be noticed, or that I won't care.

I read every single one.