I’ve decided to join in with Blogtober this year again, I missed a year last year but I did join in in 2016. With Blogtober you are given a prompt to write about each day during October. As it’s the 2nd of October I’m already a day late so I am combining two posts in one. The first prompt is All About Me and the second is Boobs, Breast Cancer Awareness.
All About Me
As I said, I’ve joined in Blogtober before, in 2016 and here is my All About Me post from then for comparison.
I’ve gained a couple of years since then, no surprise! But I’ve also had a few major changes. I got married!! So my surname has changed. I also had a new diagnosis for my illness. Back then I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis from which I had a good chance of recovery. A few months later my diagnosis was changed to Stiff Person Syndrome with PERM. This condition is progressive and can also be fatal. I’m working with my consultant on the right course of treatment, but it’s not easy with the condition being as rare as one in a million world wide.
I’m a mum of five, two adults and three younger ones. My children all live at home still and we have a five bedroomed house in South Birmingham. Life is very chaotic at times!
Raisie Bay
This blog was born in 2011, a year after my youngest child. Until then I’d blogged about him in another Blog, Baby Number Five. Prior to that I’d also blogged about my journey to conceive my third daughter who is now 13. The blog spread over two years so you could say I’ve been blogging for 15 years now. However, even more impressively, my first ever blog was set up in 1998 and was all about my life as a university librarian. I had no blogging platform back then and had to write the whole site in HTML.
Raisie Bay started out as a record of my younger kids life and that is still a major part of my blog. But as the kids get older, and seem less reluctant about appearing here, my blog has started recording more of my life in general. Basically, it’s changed from a Mummy blog to a lifestyle blog. My family is still at the heart of everything I write though.
Boobs
My type of Stiff Person Syndrome is often apparent in cancer patients. Generally, when the cancer is treated, then the Stiff Person Syndrome is treated too. This is why some forms of chemotherapy may be the answer to curing my condition. I have been tested for all types of cancer and so far I’m okay.
I am insured against Breast Cancer. I took out the insurance 12 years ago when a friend was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Breast cancer and we both had babies. Sadly, she passed away when her child was just five years old. Since then I have had five friends succumb to the same awful condition. They are still around and still fighting.
I hate cancer, it’s a cruel disease that takes away so much. The sooner it is caught then the best chance there is of beating it though, so awareness is so important, as is checking yourself often. Find out more information on this here on the NHS site.
To find out more about Blogtober and see all the other bloggers taking part please click the button below or visit Big Family Organised Chaos
Raisie, I’m so impressed with your blogging history and skills! I didn’t get started until 2010, and I still don’t know what I’m doing! So sorry about your health difficulties, which you seem to be managing with panache.
It’s crazy to think how much has changed for you in a couple of years. It’s nice to see you taking part again.
Cancer is the worst. It is so cruel. x
Well done on your blogging triumph, 15 years is mighty impressive. Wishing you all the best in your treatment for your condition x
Hi Anne, you must have been one of the first bloggers way back then!… A couple of years back I said I’d like to take part in Blogtober, but know I could never keep it up for the entire month. My brain wouldn’t come up with post ideas on a daily basis… Cancer is one of my biggest fears, it doesn’t care who it takes.I hope you never have to use that insurance.
Sending you invisible inspiration vibes for Blogtober.
xx
I loved reading more about your background, your family and blogging history. A librarian blog!!! Wow!! I’m so intrigued by that. Are any of your old blogs still in existence out there? Do you explain anywhere about your blogging name raisie bay? I’m so sorry that what we all hoped would be a short time of illness for you has become so ongoing. You do such an amazing job of raising awareness about it. Xxx
The only blog still in existence is Baby Number five, although there is no posts on it since I moved over to here. I’d love to recover my library blog but it’s lost in cyber space. I do remember getting an e-mail asking me to change the name of the blog because I’d used the name of the library in it and it was getting more web traffic than the official library blog, haha. I know some of the students used my material to make a parody song in for the end of year concert. They called Librarian Girl, and sang it to the tune of Madonna’s Material Girl. It was very cringy. As for Raisie Bay, I do explain in my very first post on here. It’s kind of my maiden name with a bit of mixing up to make it sound less like a real name. xx
15 years of blogging wow, well done that is quite an achievement, I remember having to do everything with HTML it was quite time-consuming. Congratulations on getting married. Sorry to read that your illness is progressive. I look forward to getting to know more about you as the month goes on #Blogtober18
Welcome back and congratulations on getting married, its so lovely to find out whats been happening over the last few years(apart from the illness obviously). Looking forward to reading more throughout the month x