My Entry for December Blog Carnival: Top 10 of 2010!

Thanks to Marie for really making me think hard about what were important milestones in 2010. It is good exercise for the mind to prioritize and categorize events. Also, it’s very useful when planning for the future. I’m glad I did it and I hope it helps someone else.

1) American College of Rheumatology Scientific Meeting

Attending the weeklong meeting in Atlanta was a milestone for me, for my blog, and for the RA community. This was the first time a patient attended the meetings as press. However, the week itself was also full of milestones that I cannot easily summarize. There was one special blog post to describe how it affected my perspective: American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting 2010 and a little video telling the highlights: Video: Thoughts from American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010.

2) RA Warrior YouTube channel

The YouTube channel is a work in progress. Isn’t everything? But it would be hard to share how important a milestone this is for our community. There is so much “bad” information about RA online, including YouTube, so we really need to make an impact. And we are. It is thrilling to see our little channel growing so fast with contributions from the community that we can be proud of.

3) Joining WEGO Health

I finally joined WEGO Health last spring so that I could join in a discussion on one of Ellen’s posts. Immediately, I found WEGO to be a friendly and positive space to learn and express yourself. That makes one want to find ways to contribute! This year, I was been involved in a webinar on chronic pain and a panel discussion for industry on social media plus a few blogs and discussions.

4) The Swelling post

Rheumatoid Arthritis Swelling: My Confession was extremely important because there is so much important RA data documented in the 179 comments there. But, it was also a milestone for the community because it was a point that the blog began to clearly demonstrate that the RA that is in the “books” or most websites is not an accurate depiction of the disease. It was also a milestone for me since it was the first time I intentionally polled readers about a specific symptom. On top of all of that, it was a “confession,” a secret that was finally told.

5) RA Map

This is a map that’s like a Mall Map to show you where to look next if you have an RA diagnosis. I spent so many days making this map! It was one of those things you dream about and wonder if you could ever accomplish. It seems like a simple gadget now, but it’s still a great tool for anyone newly diagnosed.

6) RA Info Button and Woman’s Day Video

The Woman’s Day saga continued through 2010. RA patients continued to send unanswered letters to the editors at Woman’s Day magazine. Since Woman’s Day had stated that they stood by their original RA article as a “primer on RA,” I decided to create an accurate primer on RA. It is the RA Info Page with the RA Info Button that can be placed on any blog or website to link to the RA Info Page. I announced the Info Page and Button with my first talking video, in which I spoke directly to the editors of Woman’s Day. It was painfully awkward, but I rehearsed every word 100 times. It was a milestone to be sure.

7) The Spear newsletter

The newsletter was a milestone if only because I wanted to do it for so long. Technical problems* slowed me down for months, but 2010 still saw 3 issues of The Spear. I did a happy dance each time one went out. You can get last week’s issue here.

8) The Posterous blog of Howard Luks

New York orthopedist Dr. Howard Luks invited me to be a contributor on his blog The Orthopedic Posterous. I’ve written blogs about how doctors and patients connect with social media, and ways patients use social media to build community, learn, and make a difference in their own health and others. Taking this step was a milestone on both his part and mine.

9) #Rheum hastag & Twitter chats

In October, I announced the hashtag for rheumatology topics on Twitter, #rheum: Twitter & a #rheum for the Rheumatoid Online Community. It’s being used by lots of patients, doctors, and organizations already. Chats started in November. They are Sundays at 3 p.m. EST. There is a new Twitter profile to follow for announcements and moderation for #rheum chats: @rheum_chat.

10) 1^st Rheumatology Blog carnival

We held our first blog carnival this fall. The thing that made it unique and exciting was that several blogs who participated aren’t simply health blogs. We wanted to reach new readers and a more mainstream audience. We did. The next carnival was announced in last week’s newsletter if anyone would like more information.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!

* “Technical problems” is all I can say now about why it took me so long to do many of these things. Doesn’t seem like a good enough account for the many days and nights it takes to make many things work. Looking forward, it’s the one thing I wish I could change: the number of hours spent wrestling with code to make things work.