This post is for the Chronic Babe Blog Carnival all about Gratitude.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.  Everyone here knows the people I’m grateful for…my dear blogging friends, the friends who have stuck by me…and most of all my precious husband.

I could write an entire blog post on how grateful I am to my husband for all he does, but I think I gush about him enough.

One of the biggest things I’m grateful for is this blog!  Picnic with Ants…gives me a place to get out my emotions, to know I’m not alone, to work out problems, to make other’s aware of what my Ant’s are…especially Meniere’s Disease.  When I started this blog I was fighting my illnesses tooth and nail.  Thanks to my friends on here, I’ve learned to accept them as a part of me.  No they don’t define me, but they are a part of me, and I will learn to walk with them.  That in no way means I’ve given up, it simply means I accept this time in my life.

This is a safe place for me.  A place where I can be myself, and if people don’t like it they don’t have to read it, however, I’ve very grateful for those of you who do.

At times I realize I’m grateful to be in this place I am right now.  In a way, yes, I’m grateful for this disease, we call Meniere’s…and my list of other conditions.

I have learned so much during my struggles with chronic illnesses.  I’ve always been a compassionate person, but I think I’m more compassionate.

I notice things I didn’t really see before.  I’m grateful to my doctors who are trying everything to give me some relief.  To the staff at Duke for all the things they do that I don’t even see.  I’m grateful for the orderly who was so kind to me while wheeling me to the recovery room, and stopped by later just to make sure I was alright.  I’m grateful to the guy at my grocery store who knows I’m hearing impaired and will make sure he looks straight at me when he talks and enunciates his words so I can read his lips if I can’t hear what he’s saying.  I’m grateful for the technology that is available today,my computer, my hearing aid…and possibly in the future a cochlear implant.  All different technologies, but all help me communicate so much better than I could without them.

I’m also grateful

• I can still appreciate the seasons
• I can still read and escape in a book.
• I can research doctors, illnesses, treatments…just think a few years ago we couldn’t do that as easily as we can now.
• I have doctors who don’t mind questions I have, are thrilled that I’ve researched my condition, and who genuinely care.
• I have health insurance…and that bothers me, it just shouldn’t matter…but it does.
• that things continue to change.  One day I may be very depressed and blue, but the next day I may see the sun and find the clouds that were so thick over my head are clearing.
• For my dog and cat…especially my dog.  She has been with me for 18 years, she’s now 19.  A year and 4 months ago we were told she had a very aggressive form of bladder cancer, they couldn’t operate, and she would last at most another year, probably much less.  She doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.  I guess no one told her she was sick.  : )