On the Subject of Health

Do you blog about your worries?
I wonder this a lot.  When I find out I'm pregnant I want to blog about it (I'm not, btw). But there's an unspoken rule about the health topics you can share with others. You can blog about anything comfortable: a 2nd trimester + pregnancy, a cold or flu, or even your struggle with cancer or depression.  Because people know what to expect with that.

But we aren't allowed to blog about waiting.  Waiting to see if a pregnancy will stick, waiting for test results, waiting for news about your husband in Afghanistan.

Why is that?  I know some people break the rules.  I've seen blog posts about pregnancies within hours of taking a test.  I've also seen posts that say, "Oh my gosh they're testing me for stomach cancer today!!"  And then 2 hours later after 2000 comments about prayers and "thinking of yous" that person posts, "What a relief, it was just indigestion!"  But then everyone is miffed because they were made to worry for nothing.

And yet...think of what that person is feeling at that moment.  They're in pain, they're scared, and they have no answers and they feel alone.  All they want is to share what they're feeling so they don't feel quite so alone.  But that isn't allowed.

It reminds me of when my dad died and during the viewing everyone came through and was so upset and my mother and I felt like our main job was to comfort others and appear strong.  It was weird.  Weren't we the ones suffering the most from his loss?  But breaking down was not an option, even though it was we wanted to do.  Instead we let polite tears of sorrow fall down our cheeks while in the presence of others.  I'm not upset about that, but it seemed odd to me.

How private does one need to be about these things?  We don't want to upset others, but how often have you gone to google, hoping to find someone who has blogged about exactly what you're going through?  Maybe that person will give you hope that you might be able to keep your unborn child or that they didn't hear from their spouse for a month and they still came home from war.  Or maybe you just need to be told, "it's okay to worry.  Because I worried too.  And you're totally normal."  In the world of blogging, where does politeness give way to honesty?