I thought I’d gotten this post out for Monday but didn’t realize that my server wasn’t working right!

So, let me take you back a few days on the tour and tell you what’s coming

Monday Nov 17 — We were at Shauna’s Life In Pain. I wrote about how people seem to respond to a new diagnosis and how this affects their career plans. This was in response to an interesting new study on children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Tuesday Nov 18 — We were at Free My Brain From Migraine Pain.  I explored the inherent conflicting needs we face when we’re trying to take of our bodies, our jobs and the rest of our lives.

Wednesday Nov 19 – We’re scheduled to be over with Lisa at RestMinistries but she’s been quite sick and not sure she’ll get the post up today. Lisa interviewed me with 3 questions and just to get you interested, here’s one: The title seems to be telling women they have to work. Do you believe that?

Thursday Nov 20 – We’re scheduled to be at Being Chronically Ill Is A Pill where Maureen asked me to explore this issue: What happens when you hit the wall and can’t keep working at what you’ve been trained to do?   I reiterate a lot of the things I discuss all the time but offer a new way to look at this. Don’t miss this – would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Friday Nov 21 — We’ll be at the ICIExperience where Sherril will be reviewing the book. It’s wonderful to get all these perspectives on what we’ve done!

Monday Nov 22 — We’ll be at Down the Rabbit Hole: Journey of a Migraineur where Debbi is running a contest (the book being the prize) and I’ll be responding to some of her questions.

Tuesday Nov 23 – We’ll be at Living with Fibromyalgia - where she’ll be posting a book review and asking me some questions.

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Though she’s worked hard and gotten an MBA, she’s starting to think about finding work that is also good for her soul and her body. She’s concerned too. She’s not sure what to tell prospective employers about this jagged fork in her career road, or just how she’ll make it all work. She reminded me how important it is to share our stories, and to talk to someone who understands.

Some of what she told me reminded me of an article I wrote years about 8 years ago in which I chronicled the highlights of the first 8 years of my journey figuring out life with Crohn’s Disease. Having come from years of training in which the predominant thought was “you create your life,” I had a very interesting time reconciling this new body reality with that premise, and so I sought all sorts of remedies in the pursuit of health. I share it with you today, uncensored.

JOURNAL ARTICLE – What Can Your Health Tell You About Your Career?

Until 1992 I had been, by all accounts, healthy. I am sharing my story with you in hopes that you can use it to make a difference in your own life.

In 1992 I suddenly developed a severe gastrointestinal illness, Chrohn’s disease, which can be very debilitating. The cause of the disease is unknown, and there is no “cure.” This is my eighth year with Chrohn’s and I have been completely symptom free for 7 months, without taking any medicine.

7 months is not forever, but I can tell you this wellness comes with a certain degree of confidence. (While I tell you this, I mentally knock on wood and give thanks, and probably will for the rest of my life.)

My illness has been a tremendous teacher. I have used it to learn about my values, where my integrity’s been out, and to make choices more truly aligned with who I am, and what I am here for.

I had met and heard about people who were far more disabled by this disease than I ever was, and others who claimed to had gotten rid of it. When I fell ill, I vacillated between feeling lucky it wasn’t worse, and feeling like a victim, not so masterful after all. I learned that we each have our own process and learn our lessons in our own time. Click here to read the rest.

Joan

P.S. Have you caught Rosalind’s Virtual Tour? Check it out now.

Next stops:

• Wed Nov 12 – despite lupus, asked me to respond to this question: Why do you give so much attention to the issue of talking about chronic illness and do you think this is more difficult for women than men?

• Thursday Nov 13 – Fighting Fatigue asked me for to write about raising a family, working and living with chronic illness. I offered one “big idea”- a strategy – that I found really helped us.

• Thursday Nov 13 -Yes, we’re appearing on two sites in one day! Read a review of the book on Stuff and Nonsense.

• Friday Nov 14 – My Life Works Today — I’m writing in response to a reader’s question: What happens when you’re too sick to work?
• Friday Nov 14 - Getting closer to myself interviews me asking such questions as: what do I think about the universal issues women with chronic illness face, what should women in their 20′s & 30′s be thinking about as they look ahead and what can women do as a group to face these issues.

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Nuggets of info at each site on the appointed day!

The Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend! virtual book tour is happening. For those who don’t know, a virtual book tour means that the book will be featured on different blogs over this month (see a list here).

• Monday, Nov 3 – Rhymes with Migraine, I wrote a blog post on the Top 5 Things You Should and Shouldn’t Do to Manage your Chronic illness at Work.

• Tuesday Nov 4 - Somebody Heal Me, Diana Lee, interviews me asking why we wrote the book and specifics about communicating at work.

• Thursday Nov 6 - Muchtomysjogren, asked me to write about how I handle disclosure at work and personal — and how much is too much.

• Fri Nov 7 - Howtocopewithpain asked me to respond to a reader’s question: How do you explain an apparent lack of ambition or lack of enthusiasm for the job?
  
  

• Mon Nov 10 – celia chicks are hosting a contest and giveaway

• Tues Nov 11 – achronic dose, Laurie Edwards interviews me about the book’s focus, the warrior spirit and more.

• Wed Nov 12 – despite lupus, asked me to respond to this question: Why do you give so much attention to the issue of talking about chronic illness and do you think this is more difficult for women than men?

I’ll update you on the future posts next week – but you can also check out the calendar on the blog tour page.

Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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No, it’s not Kansas and this isn’t your parent’s book tour. These days, no publisher spends money sending their authors (certainly not first time non-fiction authors) to brick and mortar book stores around the country.

The good news is that this doesn’t require any travel – for you or for me! This virtual book tour will be on our favorite disease blog sites. The format varies – some bloggers will interview me (podcast and print), others will review the book and still others have asked me to write a post for the day they’ve signed up.

You can see which of your favorite bloggers have signed on– and make a note to go to that site on their selected date (check the calendar on the page).

Although Joan and I have each done “old fashioned” book readings (I read recently at Newtonville Book Store an independent book store in Newton MA) and enjoyed the experience, this is a much more effective way to reach a larger audience. Joan is busy with other things and won’t be participating in the tour.

FYI — Do you know any bloggers who aren’t signed up whom you think might want to participate? Email me (rosalind@cicoach.com) so I can contact them. Or send them this post.

Look forward to being there with you. More updates as we get closer.

Rosalind akacicoach.com

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We’ll also talk about why it’s a woman’s issue and some of the particular concerns for women in the workforce.

If you’d like to attend and have a chance to say hello and ask questions, too, you can! There’s no charge to attend. Just visit Futures in Motion to register. I’d love to meet some of you who we’ve only been able to write to through our blog.

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Notes

A special thanks to the author of How to Cope with Pain for her fabulous review of
Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep, Working, Girlfriend!

Anecdote: here’s a great example the incremental value of your network and support team. I’ve met Markell in person. As is rarely the case these days, she actually lives in the same County I do. I first met Rosalind by telephone about 3.5 or so years ago. I’ve been working with my Virtual Assistant (VA), Angee Robertson, for 6 years. Angee introduced me to Rosalind way back when, and it turns out that Angee is also Markell’s VA. Wild, huh? How has your network worked it’s magic for you?

Joan

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The dictionary definition iDictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) – dis·clo·sure

In light of chronic illness, disclosure refers to the act of telling another that you live with a chronic illness.

I thought Joan’s blog post last week (No Hardfast Rules about Disclosure) so important that I led my readers from my other blog, Working With Chronic Illness, straight to that post.

I got a comment that I have to share because it fills in the picture even more. I’m pasting it here:

Christina Gombar on Aug 28th, 2008 said:

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If anyone had told me that my first book would be based on my experience living and working with a chronic illness, I would not have believed it. I was a pretty darn healthy girl. If they also told me that I would be talking to groups of 20-50 people about marketing, time management and work-life balance issues, I wouldn’t have believed them either. Not this scardy cat. I most certainly would not have believed it 8 years ago when my Crohn’s symptoms were pretty constant, and the slightest bit of anxiety would send me rushing to the bathroom.

But, here I am, with a book, getting ready for my first book signing event, right back where it started, at a bookstore. Is this the silver lining in my story? Did I have to go through this to have my dream?! Apparently so.

It’s hard to find the silver lining when you can’t do your work without also feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, or you have used up your sick days and it’s only July, or it feels like you have to choose between taking care of yourself and having real fun. It’s a big giant suck.

I like the late Randy Pausch’s distinctions in The Last Lecture. Tigger or an Eeyore? Silver lining and dreams or the alternative? Which is better for your health?

Believe me when I tell you that I’m not a pollyanna. I can go into victim mode like everyone else. But, as my coach says, I’m so used to the life I have, I’ve forgotten how good it really is.

I close with another one from Randy’s Last Lecture, ‘We can’t change the cards we’re dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Joan

P.S. I’ll be back with a more strategically-oriented post in two weeks. I’ll write about the questions of disclosure during interviews, and all the variables that go into the decision, predictable, and otherwise.

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Joan and I were interviewed by Dr. Terri Orbuch, the “Love Doctor” on Voice America Radio (look for Dr. Terri, 08.11.08) about Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend!

Dr. Terri asked some really good questions, specifically:

• Why did we write this?
• How do you talk about difficult issues such as chronic illness at work?
• What kinds of challenges do people encounter at work?
• How do you build a support team?

It’s always tricky being interviewed “virtually” because it’s hard to know who is going to speak when. It’s also more difficult to try to guide the interviewer in the direction you want her to go – rather than where she might take you. But I think we did a pretty good job getting our points across.

As you can imagine, it’s tough to talk about such a thorny issue and try to come up with some “tips” that people will find useful – which is what talk radio and other interviewers are looking for. We try to do it justice…

This blog was designated Top 100 Women’s Health Blogs. We’re delighted.

Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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This last Monday, we had another opportunity, except this was a pre-planned interview. Dr. Terri Orbuch, “The Love Doctor,” spent an hour with us. She was lovely, professional and very warm in her approach. You can listen live on VoiceAmerica at 8 am Pacific time on Monday, August 11th.

BOOK SIGNING IN ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA – MEET JOAN ON AUGUST 23RD

In our book, I included some personal stories about my journey, which is without a doubt intimately shared by my son. I became ill when having the time of my life working for Brentano’s bookstore as a training manager, and my son was 7. Now he’s 23 and working at a local Barnes and Noble. When he found out the date our book would be published he approached the Customer Relations Manager at his store to suggest bring me in for a book signing, without any prompting or request from me. Wow. So many, many reasons this is a Wow…last week I went into the store, and there the book was, in a stack with a poster announcing the event.

If you happen to live in the area, I hope you’ll come on by. I’ll lead a short discussion about this challenge we’re all dealing with, and, of course, sign copies of the book. Click here to download the flier with all details..

Joan

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Last week I “met” a lovely woman ( I could practically hear her accent in her emails!) , Lindsey Middlemiss of FibroAction.org, a UK organization.  She’d read Women Work and Autoimmmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend! and wanted to interview me about it and my business.

When bloggers interview, they tend to write a set of questions that you answer. It’s really quite efficient. You can read that interview here, Getting to Know Rosalind Joffe.

One thing about publishing a book that I think many people don’t realize is that most of the time, the authors, not the publisher,  are responsible for selling the book.

I knew that before before the first word was written. But thinking you know something and actually living through it can be quite different.

Now I realize that there are actually three stages to being a “successful” book author (in my world, that means that you sell more than 1,00 copies in the first year).

1. You write and edit it.
2. You publish it.
3. You market it so it sells.

Joan and I are in phase 3 and it’s much more work than I’d envisioned.  And, we’re not doing it completely on our own! The publisher does some marketing (although it’s pretty minimal) and I hired a publicist! That said, marketing this takes hours out of the week that I could/should be devoting directly to the cicoach.com business building which is how I earn my living (no, unfortunately, book sales don’t do that).

I’m not complaining. I have to admit I get a kick talking about this –  to all these people whom I’ve never and will never meet!
Rosalind aka cicoach.com

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