[mikeb]

Journal Writing and Dex

by mikeb on Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:33 pm

Back in January when I began my induction phase therapy, I started to write (almost) daily journal entries as a way to sort out thoughts, keep track of how I'm feeling, etc. I'm wondering if many other Myeloma Beacon folks do this too.

I've found the journal writing to be pretty helpful, although it sometimes is a chore. It was particularly useful a couple times to look back to the corresponding day during the previous cycle to see how I felt then. I don't know if anyone else (like my family members) will ever read any of these journal entries, or if I would ever want them to. But for me, I think it's a useful exercise. One little thing to help me keep sane.

I'm in the consolidation phase now, and a thought occurred to me a few days ago. During my "on" weeks, I take Dex 4 days during the week. I have not had terrible problems with Dex, but I definitely do get amped up. So I wondered whether I tended to write more in my nightly journal on Dex days than on non-Dex days. Since my "journal" is just a bunch of text files on the computer, it was easy to get the answer. During the induction phase (3 3-week cycles), I wrote an average of 599 words on Dex days, compared to 440 words on non-Dex days. Not scientific at all, but it confirmed my little hypothesis.

[nancy524]

Re: Journal Writing and Dex

by nancy524 on Mon Aug 26, 2013 3:38 pm

I have keep a calendar/journal ever since my diagnosis in Dec 2007. It is helpful to look back and see how you felt and what was going on at that time. It wasn't nothing lengthy just how I felt, meds I was taking, tests I had and few other things. Nancy

[RayGunter]

Re: Journal Writing and Dex

by RayGunter on Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:01 pm

I found writing about it has helped me a lot. I do my 'journal' in the form of a CarePages account. At the beginning, I was writing a few times per week when things were "interesting" and now it once every couple months as things are thankfully boring.

I tended to write more informational as opposed to emotional.

I'm not sure why exactly, but just talking about it and writing about it seemed to make things better. And seeing people reading it and commenting on everything made me realize how much people care and that was so helpful as well.

Looking back, I wish I had written more. I am young (40 now) and have 2 younger kids that haven't read any of it. I'd like to have them read it at some point to see all the things daddy was going through. I also like to go through it myself sometimes to recount some of the things that happened.