Its taken me a while to get back into the groove of this blogging thing.  Sometimes I sit and write randomly, lengthy thoughts that I then “delete.”  I keep wondering and searching for meaningful, merit-based thoughts worth sharing.  Admittedly, I confess to trying too hard.   

As I have said before, I am focused on the creation/recording, whatever, of medical histories.  Ironically, a friend is in the hospital right now; its very touch and go.  I visited yesterday and came home wondering, what part of this whole episode will they remember; want to remember; maybe not know they want to remember; maybe think they’ll never forget, …… but.. I think time usually makes the details fuzzy.

I set up a blog for them to help communicate to friends and family what is going on.  (I wish I felt like I knew what I was doing!)  Keeping everybody informed and up-to-date has become a real burden, and there are a lot of people who care and want to know how our friend is doing. It will be interesting to see if the blog takes off.  I’m watching (and commenting!)

Cheers

Like many, I have so many ideas of things to blah, blah, blah about — oops, I meant “blog” about.  The challenge, I think is trying to stay focused on one subject, and preferably one that has meaning.

“Confuciously” speaking, (I’m thinking), who’s to judge what has meaning?, and what doesn’t??  Here is a quote I read today:

“We are minor in everything but our passions.”
~Elizabeth Brown

“Confusingly” speaking, (I’m thinking),

I SHOULD:
blog about healthcare/health stories/personal history of our medical records and the portability and accessibility of personal records… (this you’ll hear more about, and hopefully you will give me some helpful info and/or your thoughts… to be cont’d…  

BUT I would also have FUN blogging about:

• SAILING– I love to SAIL.  I have sailed alot – I would run away and sail to the south pacific if I didn’t have a husband and three kids that I LOVE; (I will continue to try to make sailors out of them though).  I am the product of seriously hard-core sailors – my parents have circumnavigated, love to race, and live on a sailboat in San Diego.  I think my dad is a guru of nautical knowledge – I could probably make money off of him! 
• KIDS –I have three – I could make you laugh, cry, or freak out at the thought of having any (if you don’t already, and if you do then you know what I mean!);
• MARRIAGE– celebrating 20 years of it this month (wow, thats scary – really scary would be looking back on 20 years of hairstyles);
• EDUCATION– like Brandy mentions in her blog,(http://05brandymartin05.blogspot.com/), I too have an insatiable quench for learning and the continual pursuit of knowledge.  Maybe I’ll continue the pursuit, and just IF I can stay focused on something “preferably, meaningful” I’ll get my PhD and someday you’ll all call me “Dr.”  lol   Who knows??

Did I mention kids???  They think I am soooo cool because I am a Bloggin’ Mom – of course they want me to stay off their MySpace though.  They can have their space – I am off to create my own…

• Other random thoughts:  T.O. (ref:Cowboys) makes me SICK — hello! Dallas, get some class – kick his ASS — outta here!; my electric bill made me want to CRY (and the TXU CSR (cust.serv.rep) in India didn’t have the right answers to read me off her script – really pst me off!)  Medical Insurance co’s really tweak me (who’s big brother are they anyway??) and that brings me full circle to what I am supposed to stay focused on — and that is something to do with healthcare, medical records, and who is really in control anyway, and WHY?? Oh, and one more thing dear to my heart:  my Grandfather turns 100! in Feb.’07.  He is amazing – healthy, comparatively speaking, lives on his own, still cooks, and a really frightening thought – he still drives!  Although not much, just to the grocery store early in the morning… 

So, trying to focus back on the purposeful stuff.  For your first contribution to my informal research: (since you said you care) please answer:

1. a. Do you know what your blood-type is? (yes/no)
   b. What type is it? 
2. Do you donate blood? (If yes, Occasionally, Regularly, Just-Once)
3. Do you fear avian flu? (No, or if Yes, Mild fear, Mediocre fear, or Extreme fear) 
4. Do you know what childhood illnesses you had?  If so,
   a. Which do you remember; or
   b. Which are you aware of because of documentation alone, or a story passed down to you?
5. Do you know when you had your last tetanus shot? 
6. Are you AFRAID to document your willingness (or desire) to be an organ donor?  What are your feelings toward this topic?

(Yes/No answers will give me the “data,” but if you want to elaborate and share your thoughts, that would be great too!)

I’ll stop here because I don’t know how well this forum will work for collecting info like this.  I have so many questions that I would like to ask.  I would really like to know your answers and stories.  Maybe I should ask for guidance from some of you technically savvy people who I sooooo envy (seriously) to help me create an interactive survey, or something like that.  Any ideas?  Any of you ever create a professional survey?  I get the statistical analysis part, maybe I should read a book on survey design. ??