If you clicked on this diary expecting the kinds of things about which I usually write, I am pleased to tell you that my headline was not click bait. But it also has nothing to do with the actual subject of this diary -- which is at once a warm memory of a cold reality which I lived out in part on this site, and an opportunity to provide you the closest thing to a public service announcement you will probably ever see from me.
The short of it is that back in 2009 I had a brush with my expiration date due to blood clots in my right leg that had traveled to my lung. It turned out that I had only one functioning lung at the time. A simple, but scary procedure removed most of the clot and I survived.
Meteor Blades and others diaried about my situation, the wonderful Sara R and the community gave me a quilt which I treasure, and I had the chance to tell my story and thank the community and get on with my life. I will never forget the many kindnesses that helped get me though a strange and hair raising time. It was a good reminder that whatever our differences, we are all in this together. I will never stop paying it forward.
But there is a reason for this diary, which has everything and nothing to do with all that.
I just learned (because I follow @StopTheClot on Twitter) that there is a new digital public education campaign called Stop the Clot underway as part of Blood Awareness Month. Its sponsored by the National Blood Clot Alliance and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The web site and video have solid, clearly presented info about clots, risk factors, and prevention.
This is important stuff -- especially for people who like many of us are writers, editors and bloggers who sit too long and are way too sedentary. We are a gang of walking risk factors.
So kossacks, those of you who were there for me when it mattered, and those of you who matter for the simple fact that you are here, please check out the video and web site, for the sake of your good health, that of those whom you care about, and your various communities.