We held our monthly support group meeting at a different location last night.
We usually meet at the hospital and have for the past two years. Last month
I asked if we wanted to meet somewhere else and have coffee and desserts. Well
the answer was an overwhelming yes.
We had about 20 people show up and had 4 new people come. They had not seen
others with buggy eyes or puffy faces and the like. They were surprised
that we spent the majority of the evening laughing. We got the information
out and told stories about things that had happened to us and we Laughed!!
I don’t think some of them laughed for awhile and really enjoyed it. Yes we
have bad days and have had meeting where everthing was serious but we always
end up with a joke or a good laugh. If you belong to a support group good for
you. If you want to start one send a letter to Dr Nancy Patterson at the address
on our home page at http://www.ngdf.org and we will get an info packet out to you.
It is not really hard to do and you get to meet some great folks with like
problems and it really does make things easier.
You don’t even have to have Graves Disease but should be a family member of someone
who does. It takes a doctor to agree to be your advisior. A place to meet and
getting the word out. I put it in the local paper and the hospital puts it in
their healtbeat section that they send out once a quarter. I also send letters
to the local endos and eye docs and they send folks too.
Have some fun with it!! We have really met some great friends and have met some
folks from the internet at meetings and in our travels. Like the old commercial
says “Try it you’ll Like it”
Live well, love much and Grandfather’s blessings
Jake (Achgook)
On-line facilitator
National Graves Disease Foundation
