With title courtesy of Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know a District”, liberties taken.

Lucky you, you have come to the very first of a series of the brilliant “Better Know a Blogger”!

So, this idea for me to expose my readers to new thoughts and ideas from other bloggers is forming in my mind and I get a DM from Ashley of Searching for Health asking if she can guest post for me sometime!  A sign from above, is it not?

So, this is how Ashley came to be the Very First Guess Blogger on Mama Sick!

When I asked Ashley what her illness was she said she was hypothyroid with partial peripheral thyroid resistance, a rare disease.

What the Hell is that, I wondered?  Well, it is apparently so rare that when I research it, Ashley’s blog is the SEVENTH site to come up on Google!  Ashley provides links for you on her blog, but if you would like to know and have the mine left to read up on it, you can learn more about it here.

Here is Ashley:

Really, I am not kidding, this is her. Does anyone have a right to be this pretty?!

Poor Ashley.  Who would ever believe this girl is SICK?!  I pity her, REALLY I do.

At 24 years old, Ashley is a newly-wed from British Columbia.

And without further ado, may I now present to you Ashley’s guest post:

I feel very privileged to be Mama Sick’s first guest blogger. A year ago I would have never guessed that I’d be guest blogging, let alone blogging at all.

I started my own blog, Searching for Health, five months ago. I had been contemplating writing about my health for a while; it felt like my heart kept pushing me in that direction.

In November of 2010 I could no longer resist it.

Ever since graduating from college and starting my so-called adult life I’ve been forced to accept that my chronic illness is here to stay. I went from working full-time, to 3/4 time and finally to part-time all in an effort to support my health. It helped for a while, but I ultimately needed to be able to choose my own hours and schedule. Some days I feel great, other days not so much and certain times of the year are harder than others.

Searching for Health first started as a place to vent about the trials and tribulations accompanying my illness. I also hoped to provide needed resources to others with thyroid resistance – which I found to be severely lacking. In a short period of time Searching for Health has evolved into more than I could have ever imagined. I still vent but I also talk about the things I do to be the healthiest version of myself in mind, body and spirit. My ultimate goal is to support, encourage and empower individuals with chronic illness to live their healthiest life.

There are days when I wonder if I have completely lost it – I went from having my own office to working in yoga pants from my kitchen table; I keep reminding myself  that I am doing what is best for my health and following my heart in the process.

So, who am I?

I’m newly married, have two dogs and live in beautiful British Columbia. When I’m not blogging, tweeting or facebook’in it up you can find me walking Ollie & Rupert, drinking too many lattes and laughing uncontrollably. I have a passion for interior design, health & wellness, and wearing flip-flops.  I’ve been to known to be a perfectionist, constantly pondering and invested wholeheartedly in everything I do.

I express my sincerest gratitude to Emily a.k.a. Mama Sick for allowing me to share my story with you. I hope you’ll join me on my journey Searching for Health.

Lots of health & love,

Ashley

Sigh.  And she writes well too!  I hope you will click onto Ashley’s blog to learn more about her, her life and her beauty, I mean illness!

You all know that I am really just teasing Ashley.  I used to be quite stunning back in the day, if I do say so myself, ahem.  Ashley is really a great example of what an Invisible Illness is all about and I am proud and pleased to have her as my first Guest Blogger.  Many thanks, Ashley!

Would you like to be a Guest Blogger on Mama Sick?  I am looking for anyone who is sick or well, who would like to express their ideas and opinions, expand upon mine, or write something completely different. You don’t even have to have a blog, you can just be a person!

Your reward is hopefully more traffic to your blog on a blog I am proud to say ranks a 4 on Google (still don’t know what that means?!) and has an Alexa ranking of 1.6 million and still growing (I know that’s pretty good!)!  And you people who are more successful then I, you can post too, and get a whole new audience!

I already have two bloggers coming up, so you better get in on the ground floor, people!  You can contact me by clicking the CONTACT button above, and take it from there.