It is easy to feel alone when you are diagnosed with mesothelioma. The 3,000 Americans diagnosed with cancer every year rarely meet someone else with mesothelioma. They rarely get to connect with someone who can really relate to their condition.
Unless they are online.
blogs An increasing number of people with cancer start a web log following their experience with the disease. One such blogger is Kasie Coleman, a survivor of mesothelioma balance family life with the management of its own bakery. Kasie found blogging therapeutic and useful in that it helps her deal experience and connect with others who can relate on a personal level.
"I found more people who are diagnosed with it," she said. "Because it is so rare, I felt as if I am the only one."
The support of friends and family is important for anyone facing cancer. Knowing that relatives are there to help and comfort when needed can alleviate concerns of a cancer patient about their current and future health. . But knowing someone who is faced with the same cancer can provide a sense of support that no one else can offer
"To reach people who go through the same thing - they can relate, I can relate, "Kasie said. "Most people say," I'm sorry for you, but knowing someone living with him and know that everyone is dying for her, it was most helpful to me. "
unique needs of patients Blogs Meet
mesothelioma patients are not the only ones taking advantage of their Internet connection. A 2011 survey by Pew Research Center reports that adult Internet using the US :.
- indicators 27 percent of online health track, such as symptoms or side effects
- 34 percent read about someone else's health or medical experience.
- 18 percent have gone online to find others with their health problems.
Many of these people are looking for health information, answers to medical questions, or anyone else who could have their diagnosis or symptoms. patients blogs are among the first places people turn to online medical information outside sources such as WebMD.
Many patients bloggers spend a lot of time to research their condition and share what they find on their blog, which eliminates some of the steps for the other. patients blogs also serve as a place for people with cancer to monitor their health status and responses to treatment. By some estimates, there are more than one million health bloggers.
A patient blog platform called CaringBridge, is widely used by people experiencing medical problems keeping friends and family updated. Kasie used CaringBridge to keep her family to this day, while she was in treatment for mesothelioma.
"He saved me from having to say the same thing a hundred times," she said. "You're tired of saying several times."
Write to health
The writing and journaling have long been considered as therapeutic tools. According to the Center for Therapy Journal, reflective writing has emerged as a form of therapy in the 1960s
in recent decades, clinical trials on the benefits of reflective writing were published. Some of them have found that cancer patients who have used therapeutic writing reported better physical health, pain reduction and health care services less necessary. other studies have reported the long-term benefits of expressive writing, there including:
- immune function, lung and liver improved
- doctor visits less stress-related
- improved mood
- reduces blood pressure
- a sense of better psychological well-being
- improved working memory
studies conducted by Dr. James Pennebaker has found that writing about events or emotionally difficult feelings for 20 minutes time for three to four days increased the immune system. Pennebaker studies suggest that writing can play a role in the body's ability to handle stress in a healthy way. Psychological stress reduction as a result of reflective writing can reduce the overall amount of stress placed on the body.
Scripture to connect and heal
Among the most beneficial aspects of blogs that mesothelioma patients love is the rare opportunity to connect with someone who has mesothelioma . At the end of the blogs are feedback forms where readers can leave a message in response to the blog.
"The rewarding part is when people comment and suggest answers," said Kasie. She finds it exciting to know that others with mesothelioma are reading his words, even if she has never met. His family and friends are a great source of support for her, and so are the comments it receives on blogs she writes.
Kasie said his blogging also helps slow down and process what happened.
"The blog, it keeps me grounded," she said. "I'm so busy with baking and everything, and I live life normally so when I sit down to write the blog."
Being a mother, a wife and a business owner remains so busy she rarely took the time to acknowledge what happened to her until she started blogging.
"Sometimes it can be overwhelming," she said. "It reminds me of what I went through what I lived with, because I tend to forget. When I stop writing, it's like" Wow, that's a big deal. "Others see it as a big deal, but I do not because I'm so busy all the time, I will never stop.
"When I sit down to write, I am able to write in a short article time as it begins to flow, because I take the time to stop and focus on that. "
A 2012 study interviewed patients bloggers about the benefits of blogs on their health experiences. Participants reported that blogs have increased their connection with others, decreased isolation and provided a forum to share their medical history. Patients bloggers have also reported that writing is to acquire ideas on their experience which fostered a sense of purpose and a sense of greater significance.
Kasie can relate. She said that blogging about his experience enabled him to gain a different perspective.
"It's like sitting in your subconscious," she said, "and when you sit down and write about it just reminds you how precious life is."
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