Chasing the Cure

I am a TV watcher to the nth degree. When I was an itty-bitty kid, I could spot logos and sing theme songs way before I should have. My teen years were more hit or miss but I still remember the moment MTV was born- “Video Killed the Radio Star” anyone? Then I became a mom and after Barney, Sharon,Lois and Bram, and Carmen Sandiego the TV went off. There were a lot of years where I was too busy; working 80 hours a week, raising a pre-teen then teenager, going to school and being a wife that television fell to the wayside unless I remembered to set it on my VCR-remember those? Once my life took a major turn I found television was much better quality than I remembered overall. I actually rediscovered my love of TV when my health started to go nuts. In February 2005 (Superbowl Sunday to be exact) after weeks of tests and pain I landed in the hospital with pancreatitis stemming from serious gallstones. During the 5 days I was there I had room by myself and I would wake up in the middle of the night before my late night pain med and flip on the television. It was then that I found the Food Network. During my week of recovery, laying on the couch in between dozing I had the tv on day and night. Six months later I was diagnosed with RA and began this long medical journey. From then on any time I have a flare, or I am sick or whatever, I am cuddled up in front of my TV and the rest of the time I wear my DVR out! Now, I realize that there are not a lot of people that watch like I do, so there is an actual reason that I am talking about this today.

For about a month now TBS and TNT have been advertising a ground-breaking series beginning next month that could help every single one of us in the #ChronicIllness community. This 10 episode series is called Chasing the Cure. Hosted by esteemed journalist Ann Curry, Chasing the Cure seeks to harness the power of crowd-sourcing alongside the medical community to find answers for people who are living with debilitating illnesses that are undiagnosed or may be misdiagnosed. I am so fascinated by the possibilities presented by this project and I am wondering if we can get some insight to our own issues as we watch and follow along on the interactive website. I even made the decision to submit my information to see if we can find out what causes our autoimmune system to go so wrong in so many ways.

Chasing the Cure premieres on August 8th on both TBS and TNT at 9pm. It can also be streamed live on either station’s app. The interactive website can be found here: https://www.chasingthecurelive.com/ If you are interested, you can sign up and be a part of the crowd-sourcing and there’s still time, if you are so inclined, to submit your story. If you do, let me know! I would love to follow your journey.