Hi everyone!

First off, thank you so much to those of you who took a few minutes to complete the short survey that I put out for you! I received a lot more responses than I anticipated I would and I will be leaving the survey open indefinitely, so feel free to participate, if you’d like to and haven’t already. It’s not too late!

In the meantime, I wanted to just mention a couple quick things that showed up more than once in the results, so far.

About 40% of survey takers didn’t know that I use social media to post things in between blog entries here. I do include this information at the very bottom of every single blog entry (with the exception of maybe the very first one) and it can also be found along the right side of your screen on any page of It’s Only A Bruise…but the masses have spoken and I need to find a way to make this more visible to you–thank you for the feedback!

The same went for email subscriptions–10% of survey takers didn’t know they could be notified via email when I post something new here. If you’d like this easy, free, and non-invasive convenience and don’t already use it, you can find that information, along with the rest of my social media info, at the bottom of each blog or by simply entering your email address in the appropriate field on the right side of the screen on any page of It’s Only A Bruise–this may vary slightly from desktop PCs to mobile devices.

I got a lot of great feedback and I enjoyed having this opportunity to hear from some people who may not interact with my blog or social media on a regular basis. Don’t be shy–I love hearing from you! The comments you left on the survey were very helpful to me to see what is working and what topics you might like to see covered in the future (and yes, that includes more photos of my dogs).

There was one comment from a particular survey taker that I do want to address directly.

That’s it. No other comments. Nothing explaining what specifically is uninteresting or input offered on how I can fix that.

Now, the feedback I received from everyone else was overwhelmingly positive and helpful and heartfelt, so I won’t let this one (bruised…and cranky) apple spoil the bunch, but allow me to say this:

While poking through It’s Only A Bruise, you could close your eyes and click anywhere on your screen and wherever that navigation takes you, I make it very clear that I live with MS and write this blog to foster a positive community with others like me and their loved ones. To insinuate anything but the truth that I’ve made crystal clear from the start is just insulting and disappointing. Shy of posting photos of my own MRI scans and lumbar puncture results, I’m not sure where I’ve left room for doubt. That tells me that this person didn’t bother actually reading any of my posts–both here and on msconnection.org (where they were referred from), visiting my About page, reading my bio on msconnection.org, or checking out any of my social media.

I can only take this small bit of feedback with a grain of salt. I can’t take it seriously because it’s clearly from someone with a chip on their shoulder who was having a bad day. I hope they find a resource for comfort somewhere, since it cannot be here. There is so much ugliness and negativity in this world–let’s lift each other up.

The reason I bring this up at all is just to add the disclaimer of: If you choose to take this survey or any future survey I may post, please be constructive. I didn’t create it just for fun, but because I genuinely want to know what I can do to make my blog more interesting and informative for the people reading it. If you don’t like my writing style, content, or attempts at humor, tell me! I want to know!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll close this by saying I’m so excited to start talking about some of the topics that survey takers suggested–THANK YOU for those! Look for them over the next few months, either here or on msconnection.org.

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Hey! I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Follow me for updates and musings between blog postings!

You can also read articles I’ve written for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society here!

Want to get updated when I post a new blog entry? Enter your email address in the field on the right side of your screen and get treated to an email alert when I post here! How modern!

Questions, comments, or love letters you don’t feel comfortable posting in the comments below? Email me at itsonlyabruise@gmail.com.