Here in the US, it is the last playoff game before the Superbowl (in what I am learning from my international friends I should specify as 'American' football. It's going to go into overtime which is a relief because everything's been really quiet while the game is on and my experience has shown this 'American football season' that people then hop on the Internet after the games are over. I actually am hoping to get the phone call to my family in that I thought would happen much earlier today, and I have a plan to talk with someone on the phone or Skype this evening or next. The Superbowl this year will be on the anniversary of the IMC's belated Holiday party, which makes me reflect on the year behind and compare it to this year. LOTS of change!
The word "Lumigrate" is made up. It needed to be unlike anything else in the medical world for legally getting a trademark. Which was a lot of work, surprisingly -- in order to get a word that can be 'unique' per very expensive lawyers. January of 2009, we were all just getting used to the saying 'Lumigrate', as it was newly given the 'green light'. What you now can see on the videos with the name was just being put together with that then being tacked onto the front and end of all the videos, all the powerpoints that go with each video download. "Lumigrate" is the melding of 'Luminous and Integrate', and just a little while ago someone caught up to me on facebook and said she didn't know what 'Integrative Medicine' is, but she had read my previous blog about from where I've come with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome and liked it enough to look me up to tell me so. Which is always nice to hear something inspires a person!
The logo, which I guided the designer/ graphics artist who was driving the computer, is intended to show weaving -- of people, ideas, countries, paradigms, schools of thought, with a light shining from the center. The top and bottom 'dots' were his addition at the end simply to provide 'balance, but when I got to thinking about it later, is almost bringing in parts of the 'yin/yang' symbol. To some, that symbol is very well understood and embraced and to others it is unknown or represents something to them that is not favorable. We are a place inviting all of these and everyone in between to come and respectfully discuss and share, even if they aren't in 'agreement'. We hope all learn from each other. Let me repeat that, please. I hope that all learn from each other here.
"Integrative Medicine" is a concept which I suggest people study up on. Some of my favorite sources I've referenced in previous blogs. (So you can 'search' within Lumigrate on words to find things you're interested in learning about and it will give you sources from within Lumigrate.com and then outside of it on the Internet.) Naturtally, the Integrative Medicine Center of Western Colorado, which was founded, along with me two years ago right about now, is at my core and forever has my loyalties and appreciation. There are links all over the blogs in the past to them, and I hope that the current people in the growing and successful Center come into the Forum areas and write as well. They have all been invited! Like anyone else, they can then link out to their website and introduce themselves and really speak for themselves better than I at this point. It's like they're 'hatched' for sure! I'm looking forward to Dr. Rollins upcoming semianar about autoimmune 'everything' and food allergies, and that will encompass fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome I believe, from my last conversation with Dr. Rollins, which was before the Holidays!
Further to the west by a few states and a thousand miles or so I guess, is another M.D. I know now and met about six months ago, who I posted a blog about LAST Sunday, and who is also into 'Integrative Medicine' and in the specialty of chronic pain and addictio recovery. Jerry Rand is the MD and owner of Bay Recovery in San Diego, which was going to be on A&E's Intervention the next day. I then posted about that on facebook on Monday and talked with him about some ideas for collaborating in the future and then later in the week posted on facebook that they were going to fly me out there to talk with them. What I didn't know was that someone who was needing pain management and pain medication addiction treatment was following all that and had been thinking Lumigrate and I were something to be following, and I connected someone to a wonderful treatment provider, in my opinion. So what I used to do here in Grand Junction two years ago I now, in reality HAVE been doing on the Internet via Lumigrate. This is a time of transition where many more people who have the influence of treating clients and patients also have the opportunity to 'integrate', and I hope Lumigrate is a mechanism for them as well.
As one of the original 'Grate Group'' gals said to me the other night, who I think actually is the 'groupie' who named it 'Grate Group', after going to a new osteopath which she sought out after learning about such things on Lumigrate or from me and facebooking about my having a new one working on me in the past months, it's like we're a quilt. She knows quilting and had a really wonderful way of explaining me, the doctors, the Grate Group, herself in the analogy of a quilt. I hope she and Dr. Rollins can talk sometime as he talks in analogies ALL the time in seminars, as did Dr. Rand when I first heard him speak last summer in Berkeley in July. (See blogs about that conference on Chronic Pain.) To have been the reason that she credits with HER being able to move forward by my presenting her with the concepts that I presented in Berkeley and which I have done 1:1 with many patients in my career as an occupational therapist, is every bit as rewarding as when it was someone who I had my hands on in person at the clinic! SHE became a 'professional writer' this past week on Lumigrate.com too, as the Cutee-cle Lady in the Forums / Aesthetics / Nail area. She goes by Ilene Morgan and she's helped me a LOT about what to do with my hangnails and the toenails that got damanged and are falling off from a big hike last fall. Oh, and she likes to dance and is really funny!
I'm still working on getting the 'other' original Grate Group gals involved in writing in the Forums and they have mostly agreed, they just need some guidance and ideas and mentoring, ego boosting and all that. One just today was thrilled to accept my request that she go around the facebook communities and help us get people guided to our facebook efforts and to the website.
In the last week I have met with in person, by phone or by messages, and secured the following we have to look forward to:
April Schulte Barclay, DAOM -- She was to be on a video but her time was scarce when getting doctorate. Very much looking to having her writing in the Forum areas at least for now. She is a dancer, by the way. Tai chi.
Kohava Howard - YogaDance teacher, reflexologist. Oh, and dancer, by the way. (This JUST came in as I was writing this, as I had to miss her class this evening in order to get the information written up for how to have all these people coming in have instructions of what to do so as to save myself time and increase their ease -- Hi
i had a great class,I LOVE DANCING!
Talk soon:)
--- what Kohava means by 'talk soon' is I'm going to get her set up to write, as English is not her first language, she is a health care worker by profession and we don't use computers believe it or not, or didn't until very recently (five years for me in the health care field, but in 1982 in Air Quality ... go figure!) But despite her learning curve, she came out of her way to ask what she could do to help Lumigrate, and was eager to get going writing about 'her thing'.
Analii - Yoga instructor, dancer, specialty is 'pelvic wisdom', spinal/core stuff. Movement Therapies.
Abbie Jean Moore - HulaHoop and Yoga instructor, fire dancer, radio DJ, writer in some very nice publications. OH, and has 'Dance' all over her facebook profile, but I think she does it with fire-laden 'hoooolahoooops'!
Lani Wallace - Aesthetician, who will write in the Forum / Aesthetics under 'skin' and integrate... there's that word again .... concepts such as food allergies, detoxification and cleansing, and how each member of a person's team has input. She's been my aesthetician for over five years and seen the changes I've gone through as I've learned more and gotten better, and we just discussed how hair dressers and aestheticians sometimes are the ones that pick up on something and can suggest someone see their medical provider, intervening sometimes critically. Oh, used to teach dance!
Cindy Schmidt, MPT - 'luck' would have it that she moved to Grand Junction a year before I did (and I even remembered it correctly today, Cindy! ... (I keep having it as she's been less time), and worked for the chronic pain specialist at the big hospital outpatient clinic down the street from the one I was at for four years, and was 'the' PT I was hearing about who was utilizing what is known as 'microcurrent', an effective modality for FMS and many other things. And she's a PT so we might get some tips from her along those lines.
Another PT who is in the works but I have NOT yet spoken to but am going to call tomorrow, who heard about Lumigrate from Ilene Spector, DO (see below) has also offered to be part of things this past Friday, the day I was meeting with Cindy. If many grab oars, nobody has to row very hard to make the boat glide smoothly and cover lots of ground! (er, water)
Claire Gibbins, a young 'activist' in the U.K. who has agreed to come into Lumigrate.com to spearhead some work related to the much younger people who increasingly are being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
In the week before that, in agreement and waiting in the wings to come in are:
Dierdre Rawlings, ND, PhD -- her intro is here and she's been swamped getting content to HER new website, but then she's going to be into Lumigrate.com regularly as our lead nutrition consultant, initially focusing on fibromyalgia and fatigue as that is our most popular topic!
Cinda Crawford - former financial industry professional who now has experience in chronic illness (FMS and CFS), she developed an energy and spiritual health program "Sacred Cellular Healing" and hosts Health Matters Show. She also writes fiction and non-fiction. And knows a TON about marketing, holy cow!
Irene Spector, DO (which will be an interactive format about her journey to treating me in what used to be my old office at the IMC here, what she finds on me (with my permission to disclose for others to learn from), and what I see happens.
The original four providers on Lumigrate are part of the IMC to this day as far as I know, and you can see them in snippets if you go to the Videos tab here. Ironically, my work now is shifting more to California conversations, and Denver, so I actually know more about what's going on with MDs in those places than I am the ones I sit a 7 minute drive away from. Today was a great example of how things have transitioned.. I spent my time with a new, ambitous and fabulous health care professional who made her debut with Lumigrate by starting a new fan page and profile for herself related to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue health education. Candace Grande is in New Jersey, has been an activist on facebook related to fibromyalgia longer than I have been, and we actually found each other by accident when I took over her abandoned 'group' last year.
We got some I.T. advise from another new teammate with Lumigrate, Llenar Bragg, who taught us how to get 20 people or rooms of people connected through the Internet so we can 'see and say', which will be invaluable for talking with people in a time efficient way. I want to publicly thank both of them for agreeing to come join Lumigrate with their expertise. In order to build an effective network about fibromyalgia, chronic pain and fatigue and in the future other pertinent and related topics such as food allergies, hormones, depression, diabetes, etc., I see that the 'virtual army of parahealth professional' who are invested in utilizing the Internet as at least part of their outreach and service to others can use ONE place to come. "Hub". "Think Tank". "Core". Whatever YOU want to call it, I look at Lumigrate literally as the center lightburst in the logo in many ways.
This past week I am happy to say Emma-Kate Lamb, OT (from New Zealand, instructor at University) made a really wonderful credit and reference to me and Lumigrate in her blog post about fibromyalgia, which we collaborated on, with me setting her up in the direction of some good information to start with and her coming back very rapidly with something really wonderfully written and an excellent resource for anyone with fibromyalgia. She's put an introduction in the Forum / Fibromyalgia and a link to her blog so people can start following her, and we'll be seeing her back on Lumigrate.com in the Forums for comments and use of that area for 'conversation' as she has time and energy.
The very talented graphics artist who drew the home page model and the full barrel seen on Dr. Lepisto's video (which is free on Lumigrate.com and only 20 minutes) and who has a really good foundation in Christian information (he's also a Christian musician) has agreed to write from his perspective about integrative medicine and spirituality in order to answer 'feedback' I had in the last week about yoga or something else to do with 'energy'. There are many different choices in the U.S. or Internet about health care and information so we might not appeal to everyone, but our intention is to be able to provide 'easily digested' progressive, valid information and as with any change, including when the world went TO Christianity when it 'happened' millenia ago, that takes some discussion, writing, thinking. Maybe drawing, in which case, Greg Mann is they guy! (I knew him in high school quite well and was amazed at the science fiction writing he was generous enough to share with me at the bus stop!)
Remember, anyone can start a new Topic in any of the Forums here at Lumigrate.com. Once something presents as pertinent and appropriate for it's own Forum, I set those things up right now. Yenta Tellabenta is proving to be so successful and well written and read that it warrants it's own Forum underneath the Spiritualty Forum. Sometimes I even do these manipulations in the website correctly now! (I got a 'good job' from my I.T. consultant from the very beginning, Adam Cochran, on Monday, as I had to learn to pull statistics for review by potential sponsors and investors.) The "Print" button on the website areas that have them net a really beautiful printout, and don't forget you can do your normal 'print' when the website home page is up or any other page you have on in order to provide to others, such as your doctor or any other member of your medical team.
So thanks to ALL who are reading, writing, agreeing to write and I'll get the instructions on how to come into the website Forum area and set yourself up done hopefully tonight. EVERYONE who has something valid, progressive, streamlined or FUN to say about health care. Remeber, all the writers look forward to Comments if you have them, so please take a minute and write if YOU want to be part of the process here!
Oh, and I think our statistics looked pretty impressive for our first nine months. I hope those that are looking at them and deciding if we're worth investing their resources with (time, energy, money are 'resources') think so as well!
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [1] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Links:
[1] http://twitter.com/lumigrate
[2] http://www.lumigrate.com/blog/all-time-biggest-week-new-writers-lumigratecom#comment-359
[3] http://www.lumigrate.com/blog/all-time-biggest-week-new-writers-lumigratecom#top
[4] http://www.lumigrate.com/user/login?destination=node/252%23comment-form
[5] http://www.lumigrate.com/user/register?destination=node/252%23comment-form
Comments
Mardy...
Thanks for the 'Shout Out'...I am flattered.
'Ilene'
The Cutee-cle Lady