My top moments to get to 100,000 page views

Ok so the crazy moment has arrived where my blog had now had 100,000 page-views!!!!

When I started the blog I never imagined I would get 10,000 page-views let alone to 100,000 and sometimes 5000+ in 1 month. Although I have been the one asking a lot of the questions and doing the research I have to thank everyone that has done an interview as they are really popular and helpful posts that really make the blog as successful as it is. 

When I got to 1000 and 10,000 page views I did a recap on some of my favourite posts and things since I started and I thought it would be nice to do that all again, especially as so much has changed. Not surprisingly none of the science posts or treatment posts will make my list as although they are useful they were not as enjoyable as many other posts. 

1) The original post that I have been updating. This is by far and away the most viewed post on the blog and probably is one the most useful posts. I started this post when I was very low and my foot was really starting to progress and get to me more and more. It began to show to others how I was feeling and how bad the foot was, it ultimately it was started the blog and got the ball rolling. 

Everyone who ran / walked to help raise money for me to get radiotherapy.

2) The run to raise money - Whilst the post was not that significant and may not be that useful to visitors the run itself showed me how much various people cared for me, how much of their time efforts and money they were willing to donate to help me and to get my foot better. Thank you again to everyone who ran and donated as this was the start of road to radiotherapy.

3) I got married - It seems like a long time ago but back in February 2012 I got married to my wonderful wife. She was my rock when this condition was awful and I owe a lot to her. There is no specific post for the wedding but instead I'll link to the interview she did for the blog.

Me and the machine about to zapp me.

4) Starting Radiotherapy with Dr Shaffer - Back in May 2012 I started radiotherapy with Dr Shaffer. This treatment has so far led me to be able to live a normal life, no walking stick and I can run and play badminton. I remember the day my wife and I went for this first day, it filled me with hope and was the first time I had had anyone draw on my feet.

5) My interview with Dr Shaffer - I am not referring to the consultation (which was very good) but to the interview I did for this blog. It was the start of getting specialists to post on here, a great addition and it brings a genuine medical perspective to the treatments. I am biased because Dr Shaffer treated me but he did give a very detailed review of things and I am still in contact with him now.

6) Helping other and their e-mails - By far the best thing to have come out of the blog is that I have managed to help others. It is a fantastic feeling when someone tells me that my blog has helped them, whether it just be that they no longer feel alone or whether it is like the linked e-mail where the lady found Radiotherapy and Dr Shaffer. I have continued to stay in touch with the very nice patient who contacted me and she, like me, has seen a great improvement after radiotherapy.

7) Ditching the stick - Pretty much all of 2012 was spent hobbling around with a walking stick and in a great amount of pain. Towards the end of 2012, after my radiotherapy, I gradually started to walk without the stick and come the end of the year I decided to walk with the stick. It got put away and I no longer carried it with, since then I have not need it and have progressed on to...

8) Playing badminton and running again - When I originally started the blog I did a post along the lines of the things that I miss, when I came back to it later the only thing I really missed was badminton and my freedom to be able to get off the bus a stop early or walk from a car park to a restaurant etc. I am now back fully playing badminton and running (up to) 10km. Anyone who has this condition will know what it feels like to live with it day in day out and to get away from that and being able to run was the ultimate way to celebrate radiotherapy working.

9) Amelia -Just as I was starting to get over this condition my wife became pregnant, this was fantastic news and I remember how delighted I was to see the positive test. However from there the pregnancy was awful, constant sickness and trips to the hospital for dehydration. Still at the end of it our beautiful daughter arrived. Amelia is fantastic and her smile never fails to light up a room. I can wait to see her develop and I am loving seeing all the changes that take place as her personality takes shape.

Some things still annoy like when doctors say they will do an interview and never send back their answers or they just ignore the first e-mail, I am not asking a lot of them and not only could the interview help patients but it also helps patients find them.

I guess the next goal is to get to 1,000,000 page views and more importantly hopefully help at least 9 times as many people in the next 900,000 page views as we have helped in the first 100,000 page views. 

Thank you.

Update on everything

The Update

This is just one of my updates to say that I am still around and working on things in the background. Again in the last few weeks I have had patients contacting me and it is nice that I am now able to put them in touch with patients that are fairly local to them and in some cases have had treatment with the same doctors that they are considering seeing. This is really good as it means not only can I try and give out the information that I have but I am also able to spread this and let them get knowledge from someone else.

I am hoping to turn this into a network of sorts. It would be great if I could have a list of contacts, just name, e-mail, home city / country and treatments had / specialists seen. Then when someone contacts me I can point them in the direction of this person, or to the network page where they can find someone with a similar experience and ask me for their e-mail (I would not want to publish these on the internet.

Interviews on the way from both professionals and patients although they have been "looking" at the questions for several months so I am starting to doubt whether they are going to come or not, at least I have tried. It would be great to get some more information on Verapamil and Cryo so hopefully I get some responses. I am also working with another patient and a professional on 2 separate posts which I hope to find the time to do soon.

How you can help:

As always don't forget that there already is a network or sorts, the Facebook page is building likes and so there are a growing number of patients that will see your post should you share your experience.

Please consider hitting the plus 1 button on the right if you found the site useful, this will hopefully help others find the page and will help to moves things forward.

Volunteer your story. It is always great to hear from patients, if you have had treatment and think that sharing it with others might be helpful then please contact me and I will post it, or send you questions to do an interview as I have with many others. Equally it would be great if people would let me know if they are willing to be contacted by other patients should I think that their experience and knowledge might be useful to them.

 My foot?

I have been really busy in the last few weeks. As I have mentioned previously I have started running, my foot has been coping well with that and I have started to enjoy it. As part of a charity run for work I managed to run 10km, a great achievement for me. I am also back playing badminton and working towards becoming a fully qualified coach. My movement around the court is still flatter than it was before my foot got bad but hopefully I can lose weight and get back to where I was. My foot has been coping great, in fact I would say that the post run and post badminton soreness is decreasing so the only thing that still gets to me is standing for long times.

The baby
 
Amelia is growing nicely and continues to develop every day. She is well trained and sleeps through the night, as she has done since she was 8 weeks old. She is a cheeky monkey and thinks she can get out of any situation by smiling sweetly and to be fair to her that works on most people excluding her Mum. She has an infectious laugh and it is wonderful to see her starting to develop her own personality and beginning to try and become mobile.

And Finally...

Thank you everyone for your continued support, the blog went over 90,000 page views recently and it should go past 100,000 in the next 3 months, it still seems crazy to me that so many people want to view my blog and find it helpful. I will certainly have to do a review post once I reach this milestone, after all I did suggest I would do it back when I got my first 1000 page views.

The new year

It has been a while since I last posted and as I have explained this is likely to be the case due to decreased problems with my foot and because there is already a lot of content on here, I am still happy to be contacted and I am still going to update as and when I can, although life is keeping me busy at the moment.

So this is actually my first post of the new year.... What has happened since last time I posted? 

• We have had the 20 week ultrasound scan and found out we are having a girl :-) Everything looked great and I have felt her kick. 
• I have been using the stick less and less and have not had to use it at all since the New Year, this includes after having played badminton for an hour. 
• I have been contacted by several people asking for help, hopefully I have helped them. 
• We are continuing work at the BDS and are hoping to make lots of improvement and hopefully they will results in greater donations and therefore we can do more. 

I think that it is really, but I like to keep everyone updated, basically my foot is still improving and my legs / ankles etc are hurting less and less as I continue to reduce stick usage. I am now 6 months post radiotherapy.

All the best to everyone.

In the cold, cold night

So this morning I felt a bit of pain in my foot, nothing much really and nothing to be concerned about, after all radiotherapy is not a cure but rather a treatment that is meant to help alleviate the condition and alleviating it is. I was just that this morning my feet were very cold and as with last year I am noticing that this still tends to cause some pain in my bad foot, whether this is because the tendon tightens and this then causes strain on what is left on the lump who knows? (Guess I a going to have to wear warm shoes to do what I did in the picture)

Anyway I am still in shorts and working hard on various Ledderhose and BDS things. We also had the 12 week scan this morning and got to see the heart beating, the stomach and bladder were full and it had two little hands and feet. It was great, so come 20th May, or there about there will be a little Mr or Miss Manley around the place. Can't wait to teach them all about Ledderhose, maybe I should start with animal noises though? 

Baby News and contacts

Well the most important thing first I think. My wife is pregnant!

We are delighted and hopefully by the time the little one is born I will be up for walking around lots but we can't wait. My wife however is suffering from very severe morning sickness which can get very serious to the point that she was so dehydrated from not being able to keep any fluids down that she ended up in hospital last Friday. This was very scary and very eye opening as to just how bad severe morning sickness can be, please don't confuse it with morning sickness as it is a whole different beast, like comparing the problem of having a stone in your shoe with having Ledderhose disease. She is still very poorly although not in hospital she is not really able to drink enough that she is probably going to end up back in hospital during the course of the pregnancy. We are still in very early stages (8 weeks) but wanted to announce it as she is so ill that it helps explain so many things, one of those things is me being knackered and not posting as much as I would like (still I'd rather be me than her right now) and another her trip to hospital and being unable to teach. 

Anyway on to other news and things certainly do seem to come in waves as I also have again been contacted by multiple people about Dupuytren's and Ledderhose disease. The Dupuytren's patient has just had surgery and offered to do an interview, which they have completed but we are going to wait and see what the longer term outcome in a month or so is with regards to the surgery. They also feel that they may have some Ledderhose starting which is how they came across the blog.

I have also been contacted by a Ledderhose patient who has an interesting experience to relate, again they have agreed to do an interview and this will be posted once we have completed it which should be tomorrow as I am just sorting it out now!

Thank you everyone for your support and hopefully I will be in a condition where as soon as this kid can hold a badminton racket I am giving them a thrashing on the court.