The Birth of a Blog

I am about to turn my baby loose in the cyber world where anything can happen – yes, it’s the birth of a blog.  

The Birth of a Blog

When I was first diagnosed, the thought crossed my mind to blog the experience.  After all, I did blog once before about my travels while living on the road in an RV.  The creation of that blog was rather easy since I used a pre-made design and put my posts in that framework.  I knew I couldn’t do that for the blog I had in mind now.   None of the premade designs I looked at offered me what I wanted.

I didn’t start the blog when I was first diagnosed since I was concerned I wouldn’t have either the time or the energy so I dropped the idea.  Nearly a year after that I realized that I was missing an opportunity to connect with others especially since I ended up having a rare, aggressive form of cancer.  As far as I knew, no one was blogging about dedifferentiated cancer in any form, much less endometrial.  I decided to go for it!  Throughout this time I had been journaling so I had my thoughts readily accessible to me.

Stumbling Blocks

The first stumbling block was that I was clueless as to the form this website would take and what it would cover.  There were no design ideas in my head whatsoever.  Blank.  Totally blank.  That is how I started.  Tabula rosa.  This first hurdle felt HUGE!

The Struggle is Real

By the time I decided to start I was well into chemotherapy and suffering from the dreaded chemo brain.  My brain seemed hellbent on forgetting anything and everything.  I couldn’t be creative if I tried, and believe me, I tried!  I was pretty sure I had embarked on the impossible task!   

Slowly ideas came into my head.  First was the design on the top of the home page – “It’s cancer”.  To me, that said it all.  I didn’t want any kind of happy photo or something that might divert our attention from what we are doing here.  It’s cancer.  That’s absolutely our focus.  The rest came slowly after that.

Changes and More Changes

Finally I created an initial layout and then realized I hated the colors I chose.  So I changed the colors.  Choosing a font seemed like an insurmountable task, one I could debate and argue for years to come!  I finally settled on keeping it simple and just used one font with second accent one used very sparingly. It’s hard for me to admit how easily I can make things tough for me but I finally did stumble on the old adage – keep it simple stupid!  Yeah, one overall font.  Easy peasy.   

There have been so many things I had to learn.  I’ve never put a website like this one together before and the little I did in the past was no longer in my memory bank.  The frustration I felt was enormous.  There were many times I just had to stop to give my chemo brain and the rest of me a break.  Many days I felt like I’d never get this done.  But I kept trying.  One step after the next and I kept getting closer to the finish line.

Frustration

Whenever I thought it was finally time to make this blog live, something else would come up.  I managed to mess things up a few times and then needed to repair them.  Then came something called SEO (search engine optimization).  I’m pretty sure this has been the worst of all for me!  SEO is what allows search engines like Google to find a website and place it among searches so others can find it.  It’s really important to rank well if you want other people besides friends and family to find it.  This was truly like a whole new world to me but I am conquering it. Notice I’ve not yet conquered it but I have hope! 

Okay, let’s face it – I’m a perfectionist.  Not in everything, but in this kind of stuff, yes, I am.  I’ve been told it was time to just suck it up and birth my baby already.  Yeah, I know but I can’t.  Her time hadn’t come yet.  She needed to come to full gestation before birthing could occur. 

I Am So Proud of My Newborn Baby!

Well, it’s time has finally come and here she is, out there in the world, the birth of a blog.  Hopefully others can enjoy her as much as I do.  I cannot tell you how proud I am to have achieved this major milestone.  Never did I think after having a hysterectomy, that I could still give birth yet here’s my baby as proof!

I know there are many lessons yet to be learned, but cancer has certainly taught me that I’m so much more capable than I realize.  

And so without further ado, I present to you “and still she tries…”.  I hope you enjoy it and find the things I share helpful for your journey.

May you be blessed and find healing as you travel through this unexpected and undesired journey.  Just remember that healing comes in many forms.  Be open to the possibilities.  

Thank you for taking your time to experience the birth of a blog!