I Will Not Suffer In Silence

…Nearly four months later, my website is, to use a Monty Python voice, “no longer infected”.

After doing two rounds with my web provider’s technical support, and selecting auto-upgrades of WordPress from there on out, my site was still being flagged as malware. It was so bad that I could not even log in. So I walked away from it.

In that time, the web provider did massive upgrades to their servers. I’ve been getting emails letting me know about it. This morning, with the latest email announcing a completed server move/upgrade, I decided to check in on my websites, and lo, they are no longer flagged as malware, AND I can log in.

So, Hello World. We start again.

Just in time for Endometriosis Awareness month, my WordPress blogs got hacked!
I swear, it happened on the eve of March 1st.

A month was spent trying to figure out where the hack was, talking to friends, and getting help from my web provider. They ran some kind of script to clean all my files at the code level, which worked for roughly 24 hours before the hack reasserted itself, and then the web provider threw up its hands and gave me a manual on how to unhack my site myself…at the code level.

My friend Ray helped me out further by forwarding me a user discussion on the hack, since it appears to have hit globally at the end of February.

Well, I must have followed the instructions correctly, because the sites look clean.

So here I am, back online, just as another endo flare is setting in. I plan to do an update for the month of March, as I had a whole lot of positivity going on despite the site hack.

I need your assistance! I’m having trouble finding innocuous words for my journal titles and entries.

I’ve been trying so hard not to write the words “premenstrual” or “PMS” in my journal titles, because not all the people who subscribe to my blog necessarily want to acknowledge that they are reading about pain in my girl bits.

I tried writing “pre-pain update” but the word “pre-pain” infers “before pain”, which is not the case. I am having pain before the menstrual cycle begins. It’s premenstrual pain. I was just trying to cut out the word “menstrual” so as not to alienate readers right off the bat. But I haven’t figured out how to word it in a less private-sounding manner.

Same thing when I talk about blood – I don’t like to put it in the first two to three paragraphs, because it’s a real turnoff. Some people come to my blog to check in on me because they know I’ve not been feeling well. To start reading immediately about all the gory details of my menstrual cycle as regards the pain – well – let’s just say that it makes people instantly uneasy, and they tune out.

People for example over on LiveJournal will see the first paragraph or so as an excerpt to my journal entries on this site. If one sees the words “premenstrual”, “PMS”, “cycle”, “bleeding”, etc., in the title or excerpt, they are not likely to click through to read the rest of the entry over on this site.

I want to start each journal entry off giving a concise update about my current pain conditions without putting people off immediately. If you have any advice on alternative words and phrases I can use, please let me know!

Thanks! :)

Late last night I was searching the web for images of Persephone, since I’ve been using that analogy for the last couple of months to illustrate what it’s like to live with Endometriosis. I had images of hell in my head, images of the underworld, images of women in extreme pain. I had Goya’s art in my head, and Waterhouse’s paintings in my head. Looking at individual works by those artists however did not give me the image my brain was after.

And then I found this image at closet light:

It’s perfect.

I shared this with my husband, who wanted to know more about the artist. We googled the name he used in his reply to me on his site, and found out he’s also on deviantArt. This led me to ask my husband if he’s ever signed up with deviantArt, yet. He hasn’t, so I’m pestering him. :)
In the meantime, some of my husband’s old art can be seen on his website. I’m also pestering him to add his recent work, since he’s like this awesome layout, editing, book design, art department, maps and sometimes writer for Chaosium, Pagan Publishing, and Miskatonic River Press. :D

Thank you, David, for allowing me to use your beautiful artwork on my site. I have given you credit and a link to your site in the footer section of this website.

My website provider has informed me that they are moving my account to a new server soon, so if this website is unreachable, it’s only temporary – it will be back soon!

Effective immediately, I must initiate a new rule for comment posting. To try to get a handle on the hundreds of flagged spam messages I am receiving every week, I have set my blog posts to automatically close comments on articles older than 14 days.

This really upsets me to have to do this, but the spam is so bad that I’m not getting to legitimate comments by real people for two weeks to a month later.

I truly apologise to everyone who has not had a prompt reply from me, and I am sorry too that you will not be able to comment on any of my older blog posts. You can always send me an email at steph [at] livingwithendometriosis [dot] org to comment on any of my old posts.

Thanks,
steph

As of today, I have videos about Endometriosis on both Yahoo Video and YouTube.

The Yahoo video url is
http://video.yahoo.com/mypage?s=5484120&public=1

The YouTube url is
http://www.youtube.com/user/stephlwe

The username on both is ‘stephlwe’ which stands for ‘Steph Living With Endometriosis’, to tie it to my Living With Endometriosis website.