Transitions from Fibromyalgia to ... FUNction

I'm glad we had so many people at least become aware of the resources available on Lumigrate.com related to fibromyalgia with Awareness Day last Wednesday.  This past week I've been 'switching it up' to find some new FUNctional information for people to have access to at Lumigrate.  I like to say that fibromyalgia is a bad case of what a lot of other people have going on, so any information appropriate for fibro is likely of interest to MANY others.  When you look at 'what ails us', 20% of the US population is 'on the continuum for fibromyalgia' (per Dr. Spurlock in The Three Doctors interview (see Forums/ Fibromyalgia for details), 45% has 'chronic illness' and there are increasing numbers of baby boomers who are in the footsteps of our aging parents, who are considered generally 'the greatest generation. 

I'm made aware of this personally by my own father, who is teaching me about being not only an occupational therapist but how to be part of a family team as we face a long and difficult road ahead.  Forseeing this coming, it was a factor in the decision I made in years past to stop seeing patients and bring Lumigrate to people instead.  And while I have a diverse background with occupational therapy, it is NOTHING compared to what OTs who were lucky enough to enjoy 'the hayday of therapy careers', so I've been recruiting two of my most FUN occupational therapy friends to get involved writing at Lumigrate.com!  I'm pleased to say I'm midway to having them registered and riting, or is that wregistered and writing.......  

Everying from how to open jars and joint protection of the hand, to raising toilet seats and driving are going to be covered and since they both have a diverse and dynamic background in their personal life experiences to draw from I hope this is going to be very helpful for everyone involved.  I'll be letting people know more about the specific section and what's there to get started when we're completely underway ... but I want to thank them in advance for taking the time and having the interest. 

In the mean time, I've read and THOROUGHLY enjoyed Sue Inglebrecht's 'FibroWHYalgia', and have a message for her from Petie, who saw her book (wanted to keep it but I had to refer to it with writing) and said ... 'tell her I was a draftsman and graphics artist before computers came out and when that happened I had to go back to college so I became an OT -- and I just LOVE this graphic on the cover -- do you see how the roots feed up into the tree and demonstrate that?'  I'll be getting something in the Forums to encourage people to purchase and read the book. 

AND it's been almost two weeks since I attended a full day conference on the new system that will unfold for primary care doctors in the US.  Interesting because there is a shortage and one of the FUN OTs lives in a small town which just lost all but one of its doctors -- then not having doctors admitting patients to the medical facilities has affected the work available.  Which benefits YOU because for the moment she has some time to give us at Lumigrate and trust me, Karen has a LOT to share at her 'Korner' of Lumigrate!  And interestingly, she and Petie know each other from when we all lived in Colorado Springs years ago -- before Karen and I moved to where there's less hustle and bustle.  Petie was born long before I was, in Los Angeles, so she's got some GRATE stories to tell as well.  

I wanted to just write something to keep everyone in the Grate Group in the loop as to what's going on at Lumigrate.  ... I'm still here, just working differently.  Also, spring where I live is a lovely time and then it gets HOT and I like to be inside working more, so it's a bit of a seasonal fluctuation as well.  I'm working on projects around the home office and kind of regrouping after a busy Awareness Season (but looking forward to next years!) -- I hope you're having a good spring (or fall if you're in the other hemisphere) too!