Month: January 2011

Note since posting this blog entry less than a day ago I have had an overwhelming response.  Come join our party and see the definite contributors are listed below.

Here are the first two photos of  the Twitter Charity Scarf Campaign.

MommyPerks.com donated to a Pine, Arizona- Justice McNeeley Foundation-  charity in order to help children who do not have medical coverage

Kidlutions.com donated to FriendsLikeUs.org to help children with cancer.

Here are the photos with others to be added soon!

Hello Friends,

First the Disclaimer:  This post involves Twitter-speak… If you need a help with deciphering twitter-speak please feel free to check it out here: TWITTER EXPLAINED

Let’s get the party started.…I have decided to follow the course of my dear pal, Shara Lawrence- Weiss from MOMMYPERKS.COM and wear scarves with business logos on them in an attempt to raise funds and awareness for charity.  Shara summed it best when she wore TWITTER HATS here–> http://www.mommyperks.com/vip/?p=8995

Basically, a business can ship me a scarf with their logo or I can photoshop their logo on to a scarf and snap a photo of myself wearing it.  Then we show the photo on TWITTER for a few days.  The business gets some cheap PR, recognition for doing good deeds for the community on a very user friendly and well known social media site- TWITTER,  and I get to have the warm fuzzies attributed with turning my thryoid cancer in to something good.  I believe my good friends would call that a MITZVAH.

So, if you wish to promote your family friendly company by sending to me a scarf or a logo then it would be my pleasure to wear it and show all on TWITTER. Keep in mind that your end of the “deal” is to first make a charitable donation to a cause near and dear to your heart. (When I sponsored Shara’s Twitter Hat I donated to Project Nadine for deaf literacy and mentorship) In turn, I will announce your charity of choice as part of my tweet-a-thon for your business.  The donations can be as little as $18 (which in Judaism signifies the letter CHAI which means LIFE) or as much as you wish.  I promise to be creative and make it fun for all.  And when all is said and done I will donate the scarves that I receive to charity in the Baltimore- Washington area.  I will be sure to list all the contributors but not how much you contributed.  The goals is to donate AND create awareness to worthwhile organizations.  Also, note that I will accept only 20 donations at this time.  So, please email me first for a twitter charity scarf “spot”.

If you are “in” and want to share the warm fuzzy- then please email me at info@signingfamilies.com

If you are fuzzy on the details email me too….

And if you still don’t know anything about TWITTER.. well….. can’t help ya.

Thanks for reading!

Louise

aka.. “The Cancer Warrior Goddess”

Contributors to the Twitter Charity Scarf Campaign:

MommyPerks.com

Ficklets

Chronicles of EMS

The Boys Store

Peacock Pottery

Kidlutions

Baby Stay Asleep

Parenting SPD http://www.hartleysboys.com/

Ready or not here I come… to MACWORLD! This time next week I will be on a Southwest flight from Baltimore to San Fransisco.  Color me one happy chica!  I cannot wait to see the newest of technologies that help educators under one roof!  And I am thrilled to be going as an ambassador for CANSON  for their newest and their Macworld Best Show producst- The PAPERSHOW

Now this is not going to be a sales pitch.  Sorry, if you were expecting that.  But, I will tell you why I think the face of education is at an exciting cusp. So read on if you want…

Many moons ago when I was sitting in my school classrooms I was bored.  Now anyone who knew me then knows that Louise being bored also equated to Louise being in trouble or just day dreaming.  I was the kid who often was encouraged to “take a walk”.   I just couldn’t take being “talked at” so I would “stir up trouble”.   I also had great compensatory skills during long lectures.  I would doodle (a skill I learned from my Dad), tied and untied my shoelaces multiple times and made clever notes the size of a quarter.  I was the quintissential child with ADHD well before the term was coined.  I also was ADHD in camp, girl scouts and other places where quiet was mandated.

Which is why I am so jealous of all the kids who are in school now but functioned like me!  I would  have loved access to fun, interactive and engaging teaching methods.  How super it is that no longer kids need to sit still all day long.  I would have  cheered if someone asked me to take a “magic bluetooth pen” and write my responses on an interactive paper for the whole class to see on a whiteboard.  I would have enjoyed being able to complete my homework as a powerpoint which may have allowed some of those dormant cognitive juices to flow.  I would have done ANYTHING that was creative and allowed me to work with peers.  Instead I was usually bored.  And bravo to the rare but wonderful teacher who was ahead of the technology curve and was creative in their classroom to address the needs of kids- like me.

Thankfully, my parents set clear and very concrete boundaries.  My job was to go to school.  Learn.  Do the best I could an stay out of trouble.  Hmmm.  Well, three out of four wasn’t too bad. But having those clear rules was maybe the ONLY reason I made it to the honor society instead of the principals office.

So, this brings me to why I am so excited to attend Macworld.  Because I will have the opportunity to help talk to educators so that they can in turn create classrooms that spark the minds of students to want to learn and stretch their abilities.  I will be able to chat with teachers how this way cool bluetooth technology is portable, accessible, affordable ($249 total price) and perfect for classrooms with children who are deaf, use an interpreter or have exceptional needs.  (The teacher never needs to turn away from the students giving total facial and sign advantage).  I will be able to help present and future “Louise’s” from a fate of boredom within their classroom.   My bags are packed.  Ready or not here I come……

If you want to follow my experience at Macworld from January 27th-29th please follow me on Twitter as @LouiseASL

If you want to learn more about the PAPERSHOW go to http://www.papershow.com

If you are interested in buying one for your school or a 100- I can connect you with a representative.  I know my friend Brian Friedlander would love to honor Macworld expo prices with readers of this blog for the next week. (WINK ;-))

And if you have ever used the PAPERSHOW or another kind of technology would love to hear about that too.

Thanks for reading.

About Louise Sattler:

Louise is a nationally certified school psychologist, owner of Signing Families™ and media personality.  When she is not blogging here she contributes to the JustAsk column for Education.com

Hello everyone!  I am writing to you on the eve of my FAVORITE AWARD show night.. The GOLDEN GLOBES!! I thought this was the perfect night to unveil my newest video production. My wardrobe was brought to you directly from the big buckets/ baskets/ drawers of scarves I have been collecting.  I also am making this video from a request from the nice folks at ...IAMTHEFACEOFTHYROID DISEASE.org Evidently, they are huge in TWITTERVILLE and found me and this blog when I started tweeting about Thyroid Cancer.

I was asked to make a simple video about being one of  the “faces of thyroid disease”.  I do nothing simple.  Except cook.  Therefore, I decided to video in ASL with captioning for those who can’t “read” sign language.  I tried to include Tess, our deaf White German Shepherd in the video, but she was uncooperative for the second segment of the video and bailed. She must have found out that the Golden Globe red carpet parade was beginning.

Anyway, please enjoy increasing your awareness of thyroid disease and ASL.  And if nothing else you can admire my gift from gal-pal, Wendy Young from Kidlutions. Her beautiful scarf is adorning my neck and hiding the remnants of my cancer warrior goddess scar.  Well, gotta go.   Tess is holding a seat for me. I guess it is cereal night as we did not receive a real Golden Globe invite.  Anyway-looks like Natalie Portman may be favored to take home a trophy tonight!

It is not big secret that recently I was diagnosed and am recovering from a very curable form of thyroid cancer.  I have had amazing support from family and friends who have helped me to weather this storm.  I also am the mom of two very self- sufficient and independent adult children.  They too have been a help and not a hinderance to my recovery.  Yet, I couldn’t help but to think that if this scenario had happened ten years ago or more what would I do? Who would have taken care of my kids while I was undergoing treatment and while my husband traversed the country for business?

How does a parent of school or preschool aged children handle the day to day care of their family when they can barely make it from the bed to the bathroom?  How can you recover and regroup yourself when their is breakfast to be prepared, shoes to be tied, homework to be completed and so on…  And what if you had a child who had special needs such as Autism, physical challenges or was totally dependent on you for a host of other reasons.  Then what?  I know that many people are fortunate and can rely on family , friends, associates via work or places of worship to help them during times of need, such as dealing with a long term illness.  But, will those same people be available, able and prepared to help your family if you have a non-communicative, highly dependent on adult supervision , non- toilet trained five year old?  And if not- who will?

I feel like I am the pitcher at a ball game.  Throwing out questions and awaiting answers.  If you have any way to help educate others in your area who may need assistance with parenting while ill, please comment below.

Thanks for reading-  Louise

” I AM a cancer warrior goddess”, I declared as they wheeled me in to surgery to remove my unwanted thyroid cancer this past week.  “You are a what?” laughed the anestheologist junior doc.  And those were the last words I remember saying out loud for the next eight hours.  Little did I know that while getting a nice and uninterrupted sleep, I was indeed going in to battle.

Now I can bore you with all the blood, guts and gruesome details of my week at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Or I can just give a short blog about dos and don’ts when you are faced with a hospital stay.  I prefer the latter.

So, here they are….

1. Pack hubby a snack to take.  My amazing hubby, Marc, went mealess as he thought I was the short surgery, but ended up being the long one.  Poor guy ate butterscotch krimpets for dinner.  Shame on me.  Really- should have brown bagged it for him.

2. Don’t forget phone rechargers for when you do a lot of chatting pre- during and post surgery.  Again, this was more for hubby and I who loves the phone should have put a recharger in a bag for him, next to his lunch.

3.  Insist on fashionable hospital gowns and cute socks.  Need I say more.

4. Have your hair braided before surgery if it is long.  If not, you risk looking like the bride of  Frankenstein. I apologize to all who needed to hang out with me this week.  Not my cutest hours.

5. Pack mints and comfort items from home.  I loaded my iphone with podcasts and a book on tape.  Really helped to block out the night noises that could make you insane.

6. When you can wash up, get dressed and walk, walk, and walk some more.

7. Never leave home without your sense of humor.

I close with a public thank you to the countless number of people who connected with me.  And more importantly took a few minutes out of their day to read about thyroid cancer from http://www.thyca.org.  Also, to the medical specialists from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore a very heartfelt thank you.  I know I was a challenge- it is not everyday you operate on a cancer warrior goddess.

Thanks again, all.  Back to rest in front of the TV  I go…..

I am writing this the week of my induction in to “warrior” camp.  This is a very special, by invitation only  camp.  I was invited unexpectedly and didn’t really want to accept the invite. I hate camping.  And, I was way too overbooked with my own personal agenda to feel the need to indulge within this group.  Then I learned from the courier that declining the invite was not a choice.  “Cancer never is”, he says.

Now before you all go in to panic mode know this… I have been diagnosed with a VERY curable form of thyroid cancer.  Doctors have told me this seemingly comforting phrase, “If you have to get cancer, this is the one to get”.  Thanks, I think.  Yes, I will have surgery.  Yes, the scar will be ugly.  Yes, I have employed the best doctors in the country to help me thanks to Johns Hopkins Hospital.  And Yes, I have been collecting a rather big basket full of scarves.  And if all goes well I will be back in the office tweeting, blogging and packing for MacWorld within ten days or so of my trip to my surgery.  Cancer will be gone. Easy shmeezy.

In addition, I have gone through the regular host of emotions you read and hear about-  shock, pissed, denial, pissed again, saddness, followed by a major bout of being pissed off and then finally acceptance that my insurance carrier will again- know my name by heart. (Note to self, buy new pen for tons of paperwork to be completed soon.)  My biggest fear is that people will start referring to me as Louise.. the one with cancer. If you plan on doing that- STOP!  Such references and definitions were the number one reason why I almost decided not to write a blog at all.  Also, don’t be mad at me because I didn’t have time to call each and every person I know to tell personally.  I wish I could.  Now I hope you will understand.

You see, I originally wasn’t going to tell anyone.  I really had this funny thought of just waking up one day and asking hubby to drive me in to Baltimore and drop me off for two days for a “spa treatment” at JHH.  Then I decided that was foolish.  He was bound to figure it out.  Then I wasn’t going to tell anyone who didn’t NEED to know.  But, what kind of educator would I be if I did that.  Here was a golden opportunity to enlighten and educate others.  Doesn’t everyone want to talk thyroid cancer?  So, if you do, start here: http://www.thyca.org

As for me, please don’t get all hyper on me.  I am ADHD enough for all of us.  Simply know that thyroid cancer has increased multi-fold in the past few years, especially among women.  I had ZERO signs.  No cough.  No bumps.  Nothing.  Mine was found incidental to another procedure I had.  Also, know that it is very curable.  And that if a lymph node or two are involved that does not mean you are incurable.  It simply happens more often than not with this kind of cancer and again, can be cured.  Know that TC runs in families and if you have had exposure to radiation.  Ask your doctor to check your thyroid and by all means be vigilant about other self- tests too, like for breast, colon or prostate cancer.

And if you want to do something for me.. simply take care of you.  Then when all of this is over we will have a cyber -party.  And thanks in advance to those who encouraged me to share this story.  They know who they are.  I expect them to be the first ones to chill the wine.

Thanks for reading.

Louise