Week 10 - what a wild ride

Humor me - I'm getting all weepy here...

It's almost week 10 of my blogging campaign, and I'm simultaneously exhausted and thrilled. As many of you know, 9 weeks ago I committed to writing a post on my blog every weekday, with three goals in mind. Those goals were:

• to learn more about Psoriatic Arthritis, which I've come to call the "ugly stepsister" to Psoriasis and Rheumatoid Arthritis because it is so poorly understood. I wanted to learn more about this disease I have, and share what I'm learning.
• to write every day, in order to learn write and to find my voice.
• to raise money for a wonderful non-profit in San Francisco that helps homeless street youth. This blog is the product of a 10 week fundraising campaign.
  

Creating this blog has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. I never expected to love this process so much, and I never expected that the urge to share what I was writing would overwhelm my fear of writing so publicly. I also never expected my community to support me the way that you have. $1600! So many kind comments. Thank you, thank you!

So where does the blog go from here, at the end of these 10 weeks, when the fundraising stops?

I just can't stop! I'm addicted.

But I also realize I don't have something profound to write about at length every day.

I do have something to share every day though - an article or an idea, or a research finding about psoriatic arthritis or autoimmune disease.

So, I've decided, from now on, every week, I'll be writing a bunch of shorter posts. Sortof a "hey, if you have PsA, read this! It's cool!" bunch of blurbs - very Andrew Sullivan (my blogging style hero). I'm also going to broaden out and write a bit more on autoimmune disease in general. It's all related.

Also, every week, I will write at least one longer piece on something I'm thinking about or researching. For example, this week I'm learning a bunch about comorbidity and autoimmune disease - why do these diseases like to hang out together in a pack? Why if we have one are we more likely to have two?

And finally, every week, I'll post a N=1 post - how am I doing? (BTW - I'm flaring right now and the pain in my hands and elbows is excruciating - please forgive the grammatical errors and boring prose).

Thanks everyone for making this one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Keep reading, I'll keep writing. I hope to make this blog useful and usable for those of us who want to better understand the mysterious ways our bodies behave.