This past week on a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky afternoon, with a view of the San Francisco Bay in the background, we held our bi-monthly Para Peeps meet-up at Chevy’s in Emeryville, CA. Our little group has now grown to 15 and we were please to have 8 of these members in attendance this time! At one point we all realized that this was our first time ever being surrounded by so many with “peep” scars. We laughed as we all pointed and showed off ours, noting that they are nearly invisible. For some of us years have passed since we had our surgeries, others months, while one member just got back from traveling across the country for surgery less than a week ago. She was in good spirits and was feeling energetic, happy to be moving forward towards improved health.
We updated everyone as to our advocacy efforts to date and then turned it over to the group to tell us how we can further our mission of educating others. Within minutes ideas were generated. Several members volunteered to either share their stories as a guest blogger or to record a patient podcast with us. Those who had connections with active community groups offered to use their networks to help us book speaking engagements so that we can continue to educate the public. We are so grateful to have met all of these incredible women who are willing to go out of their comfort zones to share their stories publicly in the future to help others with their journeys. Stay tuned for more stories and events.
PARAthyroid PEEPS 
Aw I missed you all. I’m aiming for next meet up. Having my energy and my Adventuresome spirit back, I set out for warmer climes and an abundance of vitamin D. I spent last week in the Phoenix area going to spring training baseball games; a few days camping at a sort of dude ranch. And right now I’m camping at a Lake Mead campground. It all appears to be a good life — and it is. But not without the clouds in life.Maya Angelou spoke of the many “clouds” in her life and she also excitedly spoke of the “Rainbows” in her life. And how she would gather the rainbows around her when the “cloud” people would seem to be getting the best of her. Depression has been so ugly for me –and I know for many others too. — during my para journey. A week into this trip a “Rainbow” turned into a “cloud” and two others followed suit. It was a crushing blow. In the several days that followed I received calls and texts from some of my rainbows who simply called to say hello, having no clue of my new clouds. I know that I need to step up my energies to reach others about this dreaded disease before anyone else needlessly suffers. Well this turned into a novel of sorts. If this awakens one person then I’m not sorry about the length of this. See you all in May!!
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We missed you too Barbara J. and will look forward to seeing you in May. For those of you interested in hearing Barbara J.’s story, listen to our recent podcast with her here: https://parathyroidpeeps.com/podcasts-with-other-para-troopers/.
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