By Steve Mallory

Last month, I told everybody about a new forum called Members meeting Members. Have you taken advantage of meeting StrokeNet members who live in your area? I know that some of you are very interested. I have been reading your posts and I know that some of you would like to get together. Arizona is still blazing the trail. They met, 5 stroke survivors and 1 stroke caregiver, earlier this month for coffee at a Phoenix coffee shop. I was told that they chatted about their lives, their struggles to find work, stroke history and much more.

The general consensus was that Arizona doesn't have a very strong presence for stroke awareness or even any groups that meet on a consistent basis for support. They were excited about getting together again and have planned a potluck for early April at "AZrabbit's" house. The survivors who attended are Marcus29 (Ruth), Onesidedme (Donna), 2ndchance (Rene), AZrabbit (Ellen) and her husband Denny. Azrabbit was the caregiver. Pictures are available in the gallery.

I strongly encourage members to take advantage of this. The Stroke Network endorses these meetings and is willing to pay for the get together, i.e. coffee, dinner, etc. We just need one organized person, like Ellen Carr, from Arizona, to do something about actually making arrangements for everybody to meet. Someone has to step up and make it happen because it will not happen by itself. I am positive that you will be glad that you did.

Also, I wanted to tell you that our Members Map is now linked to this forum. The Members Map is a map of the world where you can place a pin of the location where you live. You can immediately see where the majority of our members live. Use the zoom feature to zoom in on your state and find out who lives there. Hold your cursor over a pin and you will get a little window popup with the person’s name.

The first planned discussion topic in chat starts on March 1st. The topic is dysphagia, a stroke caused disability that prevents swallowing. Some people cannot even swallow their own saliva. Debbie Batjer, a stroke survivor, lived with this problem for years. She knows and understands the problem more than most and will lead the discussion. Like all of our chat sessions this chat will be hosted. Contact Bonnie Stockman at HostBonnie@strokenetwork.org if you have questions about the chat. Hope to see you there.

Have you been on the message board lately and noticed a different logo at the bottom of the page? Our organization has started an Affiliate Program, which is the reason that you probably see a different logo there every time you visit the board. A different logo is featured for every visit. We are officially designated affiliates with almost two dozen stroke related web sites. If you click on the logo you will be taken to their web site, where you can learn more about stroke, browse for stroke related products, equipment needed by stroke survivors, etc.

The Stroke Network has received an award. We have been selected to be included in Dorland's Healthcare health related guide to the best web sites on the Internet. The mission of Dorland's Healthcare Website Guide is to provide a charting system to identify, describe, and rate the best websites that pertain to the diseases and conditions that people encounter most frequently. Our web site was reviewed and then chosen to be rated with one of thousands.

The guide can be purchased in book form or you can purchase a membership to their on-line version that has just become available. I consider it an honor to be published with the best web sites. We knew that our web site was the best on the Internet but to have a Dorland recognize us makes that fact official.
 

Steve is CEO and Founder of The Stroke Network