Fibromyalgia/CFS Awareness Day 2011 - "KNOWLEDGE Day, May 19th at Lumigrate!

This is the THIRD year that Lumigrate has been in existence and participating in 'Fibromyalgia Awareness Day', which is a long-standing event started in the UK back in the late 1990s.  Florence Nightingale's birthday is used as the date every year because she is believed to have spent the last 30 years of her life very affected and limited by chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia syndrome.  I've included something about that in the Forums, Fibromyalgia section, Awareness forum, if you'd like to read about that and go to a website which has good information about the history.

Our first year happened to coincide with the first year there was a facebook 'event' about the day, and it was a super active day with the chat -- it was inspiring and allowed many people on facebook to find out about Lumigrate and me, and vice versa.  I started the Your Story about Your Fibromyalgia forum as a result, something which accumulated a lot of really nice stories by surprisingly accepting and knowledgeable women who were managing with FMS.

Last year I suggested a collaborative event with Deirdre Rawlings, as our podcasting studio wasn't completed yet, and she interviewed the two MDs who were, at that time, part of Lumigrate.com's content provider 'resource pool'.  In the year since, 5,000 people have accessed it through Lumigrate, which is very good to see that people's awareness was growing. 

But that made me think about if they were just becoming more 'aware' or if they were really learning!  In the year since, I've seen people who I knew were following Lumigrate discovering things about fibromyalgia which were part of the content of Lumigrate from day 1!  It's wonderful to have more people aware of fibromyalgia, but if those people don't know what it 'is' (and 'is not') then it's really not getting us anywhere overall!

There are MANY more resources now to learn from, one of which is the newly released e-book by Deirdre Rawlings, where she and 11 other experts about FMS have submitted a section from their perspective. (See Forums, Fibromyalgia section, and the forum about Deirdre Rawlings to find information and a link to read more/purchase .. it's very good and a valuable resource, as we hope all the leads are on Lumigrate.com.) 

Another is the Beat Sugar Addiction Now! bestseller by Jacob Teitelbaum, MD (author of From Fatigued to Fantastic), a book that our 'education partner' ITC Pharmacy sells as part of their education to their patients/ customers.  So that book as well as a book about doing hormone replacement in a subtle way (which they are contributing), will be included in the book bag/giveaway that you can read more about by following the link below. 

I believe the book about sugar, which has a section about fibromyalgia that is simple and wonderful, should be purchased by anyone who eats food and is struggling with any kind of medical or energy condition, so I am purchasing the books as MY gift to the winning bags.  You can find it at all the usual places AND at ITC Pharmacy (they have an online store, it's very easy and they ship right away, you'll have it ASAP AND can ask them about supplements as well and maybe get your health better while reducing costs.  My supplements through them are high quality -- for more about THAT, see the Forums, Nutrition section, Supplementation forum.

In the mean time, locally, I have started the LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley, which is intended to attract/select providers who are competent related to knowing what FMS 'is' and who have adapted what they are doing with clients/patients/ "consumers" to be appropriate for people with fibromyalgia.  What I found is that each provider, just like each person I interact with who has fibromyalgia, has their own place where they are with knowing about fibromyalgia.  One of the members is Analii Cunningham, who has helped me a great deal related to chronic pain through her subtle and interesting movement techniques, and she likes to have projects that are 'creative' related to her previous profession in the clothing/bag manufacturing realm.  

So this year for FMS Awareness, I wanted to bring Lumigrate back to it's original roots, which is to have a mix of providers and consumers who are knowledgeable and capable with writing contribute what THEY think about the subject -- see each other 'in the stream' and then have something lasting on Lumigrate for people to read in the future -- to become more aware AND more knowledgeable.  I'm getting together three gift bags which are custom for Lumigrate to be given to a local provider, a national provider and a person somewhere locally or across the country (or world) who submits something to 'the stream about awareness AND KNOWLEDGE'.  I'll do the drawing the week after, on the 19th, in order to allow everyone time after the 'big day' to submit something. 

Here is a link to what I have posted about this in the Awareness Forum -- But I suggest May 19th become Lumigrate Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Knowledge Day this year.  I hope to see many people having had read and those who want to write to so.  Registering is a very simple process and we don't share the database with anyone, we actually use it sparingly for our own purposes.  You're part of our family here at Lumigrate and we treat y'all as such.  "Contact us" if you have any questions.  ~~ Mardy

www.lumigrate.com/forum/fibromyalgiacfs-knowledge-day-2011-drawingcontest-what-do-you-knowthink-write-and-win-booksbag