Keep Your Words Few and Your Message Sweet

When I first began my YouTube channel, I read some excellent advice. The YouTube blogger stated that text online can be misconstrued. It is best to answer questions and comments on your YouTube page in as few of words as possible. Well meaning words can be perceived wrong. You do not want to make a person mad. An angry viewer can destroy your YouTube channel.

With this advice in mind, I am very cautious when replying to comments on my YouTube page. I sometimes think a few days about my response before typing up my comments. This safeguards me from carelessly writing words…words which are hard to rescind.

As I reflect on this advice, I wonder how the world would change if everyone responded to social media with such thoughtfulness and concern for one another’s well being. If you had to wait 24 hours before responding to a post, would your words change? Would you post as much as you do if everything you posted could mean the end of your social media account?

YouTube has taught me many things…one of the most important is to guard my words. I want my speech to bring blessings to those around me. Having a YouTube channel has challenged me to keep my words few and my message sweet like honey.

“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24

Blogging for 5 Years. Thank you for everything!

In the summer of 2016, I was emotionally devastated by the news that my dear friend Milly had passed away from Mitochondrial Disease. I wanted to honor my friend in some way. Milly had a YouTube channel and posted videos about her various challenges and medical conditions. I thought about creating a YouTube channel in her memory, but who am I to create videos? I did not have a laptop or any way to film myself. So, I decided to deal with my grief by creating this blog.

For 4.5 years, I wrote two blog posts a week. It was a tremendous blessing to record my life and to share with my family and friends my our struggles. Earlier this year, I decided to cut back the number of blog posts to just once a week. Early in 2021, I launched a personal YouTube channel. I traded one blog post a week for one YouTube video. I found it rather ironic that I now am doing YouTube videos just like Milly.

When this blog was started on August 1, 2016, I could never have imagined where my health would take me. About two weeks after writing my first blog post, my breathing abruptly became severe. For the next four months I struggled to breathe. In December 2016, I was started on non-invasive ventilation. On May 3, 2017, I had an urgent tracheostomy procedure to get a tracheostomy tube and be started on invasive ventilation. From there, my health has waxed and waned. My life has been fraught with frequent trips to the emergency department and too many days as a patient at the hospital. And through it all, I have had this blog and had the endless support of so many.

I sincerely thank each and every one of you for all your support. I am graceful your love and encouragement has helped me through some dark times. Thank you for turning a time of mourning into one of joy and gladness.

Is this what it means to change someone’s life?

For sixteen months, I have been making YouTube videos. It has been a lot of trial and error trying to find content and to satisfy all my viewers. I am always a little lost when making videos. What should my topic be? Is this information too personal? Will this information offend someone? Sometimes I receive messages to let me know I am on the right path, but for the most part, I am alone on my own.

Sporadically, I would receive a message from someone. A question would be asked and then the communication would end. But recently, there has been a tremendous upswing in correspondence. There are emails; Facebook, MeWe and YouTube messages. I find myself struggling to keep up. Many of the messages are heart-wrenching. They are filled with fear and trepidation. I do my best to give the person hope and pray the person finds a way to handle all their emotions.

Recently, a person noted how happy I seemed in my videos. The person had a father who got a tracheostomy and was soon to be released home. The person hoped the father would also find the happiness I had. As I read the message, I nearly broke down in tears. I always hoped my videos would be viewed as being upbeat and positive. Reading this person’s words reassured me I was on the right track.

Another person contacted me because she was doing a speech for a class. She choose me and my YouTube channel. I was dumb-founded that anyone would want to give a presentation about me. Wow! I feel a little star-struck. I also am deeply moved that so many people seemed to have been affected by my YouTube channel. After spending many years confined to my home, it is such a blessing and praise to God that He has decided to use me at this time in my life. When I thought my life was over, God has decided my life has just begun again. Who could have imagined this? Who could imagine I could change someone’s life living my life on a ventilator? Praise be to God!

Exhausted but Encouraged

Last week seemed like the longest week. I have been having issues sleeping. When I get into these slumberless fits, my body refuses to sleep during the night and will not sleep during the day. When I do manage to get some zzz’s, I wake up after a short period of rest. I tried to be productive last week, but it was so hard. My body was extremely exhausted. After a week with little slumber, I finally got some sleep on Monday night.

This week, I have a heap of things I need to do. I am trying to prioritize and get everything done, but time is quickly slipping away.

As I was getting everything ready to upload my video to YouTube, I realized I have the film edited, but I did not make a thumbnail. I really do not like making thumbnails. I am not creative. The process is often painful, and I am rarely satisfied with the end product. So now, I have to scramble to make a thumbnail for my video tomorrow.

As I was doing some things on YouTube, I happened to look at a video I uploaded 2 weeks ago. To my shock, the video was a smashing success! I often do not look at the number stats for my YouTube uploads, but this video surpassed a lot of my videos in the number of views it received, and it is only two weeks old! I was thrilled and found new inspiration to continue making films.

With that, I need to go. My YouTube thumbnail needs to be created, but my body is pulling me to sleep. Perhaps God will be gracious and allow my thumbnail to quickly fall into place.

The Cleaning Ladies are Here! I Need You to Speak Spanish!

We have cleaning ladies who come once every great while to clean. There were items in the kitchen which needed to be put away so the counter was cleaned off. I was too tired to do it last night. I told myself I would be up in the morning and do it then. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. It was too early to get out of bed. I rolled over and remained lying in bed. It felt like just a few moments. I looked at the clock and was startled it was 9:33. The cleaning ladies were to come at 10 a.m. I race out of bed. I disconnect my TPN and flush my line. I go to the kitchen. My mom had cleaned off the counter. I am half asleep as I make some tea. I grab my food and put it in my room. The ladies are here.

When the cleaning ladies come, it is sometimes one person and sometimes two. One lady has a good understanding of English. The other ladies do not. I was relieved when I saw two ladies arrive. Good, we will have no language barrier. I assumed the one lady was the lady who spoke English. My mom starts talking. She realizes neither one speaks English. I am summoned.

Once upon a time, I used to know Spanish. I rarely speak it and my memory has faded over time. So, here I am, half asleep, with my hair a mess, and wearing clothes I threw on (It's 90 degrees out, but this girl is wearing a fleece sweatshirt because I did not have time to put on anything which required me to use extra time to get it over my PICC line). Now I need to speak some Spanish.

Thankfully, I have learned if you use basic Spanish words and lots of hand gestures, the message gets across. Also, using words which are the same in both languages helps. Patio is patio. The one woman was so kind. As I was trying to think how to say over there, I used a word which meant "way over there". As I was saying it, the woman gave me the correct word. I appreciated the help.

So far, everything is going well. The one woman has been here before and knows what usually gets cleaned. That was a lot of excitement for the morning. I am ready for a nap!

Back to School: I don’t miss that

The last few weeks, my Facebook feed has been full of kids going back to school. There is the obligatory first day of school photo, and many kids hold up a sign with a few facts about the child.

As I look through the photos, I do not miss going back to school. I do not miss the anxiety of having new classes, a new schedule, new kids to get to know…and then there is the stress of school work. There are constant assignments, projects and tests. The work never ended. It did not matter how carefully I planned my schedule, it was as if I could never get ahead—I never had time for a break.

Many people have wonderful memories of school. I do too. But I would take being an adult an adult any day. There is so much more freedom being an adult. If you do not like to wake up in the mornings, you can find a job which starts later in the day. If you do not like math, you can find a job in which computing numbers is not a requirement. Although there may be surprise tests and challenges as an adult, no studying is necessary. You either pass or fail and move on.

If my brain wants to give me a nightmare, it will dream of being in school. The early mornings, the rush to get to school, the constant questions asked by the teachers, pop quizzes, boring lectures and of course forgetting your locker combination or not being able to get your locker open. Whenever my brain reproduces these images from my school days, I wake up in panic. When I realize it was all a dream, I thank God I no longer have to go to school. I served my time. I am glad I am now free.

Scam Alert

We have all seen on television news reports of people (mostly elderly folks) who have been taken advantage of by scams. The story is often the same. The person is contacted and told a friend is in need of money. Can they wire transfer funds into a foreign account? The person out of the goodness of his heart complies. It is a scam, and the person loses all the money.

Recently, schemers have become clever. They call and pretend they are the IRS. They call and claim there is something wrong with your credit card or bank account. Using a keen eye, it is fairly easy to side step being a victim of scams. However, yesterday, I was involved in a new scam, one which was VERY HARD to realize it was not a real situation.

My mom gave me my mail. There was a letter from a medical company. I opened it. Inside, on official stationary, the letter explained the company’s records had been breached by a third party. An investigation was conducted. It was discovered my records were part of the cyber attack. The letter explained I should contact the three credit bureaus to ask for copies of my credit report to make sure there was no fraudulent activity. I was given the information to the three credit bureaus. The letter also advised placing a freeze on my account to prevent any unauthorized activity.

The letter continued, stating they valued my relationship with them. The company was offering one year of free credit monitoring. I was given a code to sign-up with the credit monitoring company. The letter ended with another apology for the security breach and promised the company was doing everything possible to prevent future attacks. The letter was signed by the company’s CEO.

As I read the letter, nothing seemed unusual. This letter was almost identical to another letter I had received from another company in 2009 when my former employer suffered a cyber attack. My former employer offered three years of free credit monitoring, which I took advantage of. The credit monitoring was a great service and alerted me to any suspicious activity on my account. Having this great experience from the past, I was happy to sign up for a free year of credit monitoring once again.

When I went to the credit monitoring company’s website, I suddenly had an urge to research the company. How did I know this credit monitoring company was real? I ran the company’s name through an internet search. The company’s website looked real. There were reviews about the company and articles written on various websites stating what a great service this credit monitoring company provided. As I scrolled down to the bottom of the search page, I saw there were suggested searches listed. One of them was, “Is ‘X’ credit monitoring legitimate”. I clicked on the suggested search.

Immediately, my screen lit up with urgent warnings stating: “‘X’ credit monitoring is a scam!” I read people’s stories. They were all the same. They received a letter from a company stating there was a cyber attack. Their information was part of the attack. Information was given to contact the credit bureaus, and free credit monitoring was offered.

One man stated this happened to his company. I will call his company Good Tree Inc. “X” credit monitoring service cyber attacked Good Tree Inc. They stole Good Tree Inc clients’ information. The clients were then sent letters on fake Good Tree Inc stationary that Good Tree Inc was cyber attacked. The victims were told to contact the three credit bureaus and to sign up for a free year credit monitoring service with "X" credit monitoring company.

The catch with this all is when you sign up for the free credit monitoring service, you have to provide your personal information including your date of birth and social security information for the company to monitor your credit. What they are really doing is getting your person information to steal your identity. I was shocked how good this scheme was. I also was surprised I was almost scammed.

Schemers are lurking around every corner. With the convenience of the internet, protect your personal information. If you sign up for any service, make sure the company is legitimate. Do internet searches on the company and also read reviews. Please make sure if you are reading reviews, they are NOT on the company’s own website. Look for independent reviews and find websites which allow anyone to post a comment or review. After carefully doing research, then make a decision if your should use the company and its services.