Starting #BCSM Tonight! Topic: What's Normal Now?

Was it coincidence that Alicia Staley (@stales) and I chose the Fourth of July for the inaugural #BreastCancerSocialMedia Tweetchat?
           Let me put it this way:  we've been talking about this for too long.  Just do it, we said.
           An online chat usually starts with a short period of introduction then either three questions (sometimes less) in 15-minute segments.   Sometimes groups have chatted for an hour on ONE question.
           Tonight's questions are:
           1) Tell us why you're here for #BCSM tonight.  What do you hope to gain/learn/change?
           2) Some call life after treatment the new normal.  Let's go beyond that.  What's normal now?
           3) From a question that Lani Horn (@chemo_babe) tweeted today:  what do you do to keep your independence* from cancer?  And we DO want to hear from women with metastatic disease on this question, too.  All of us have to have a "cancer free zone" in our minds.  How do you separate cancer treatment from your identity?
          And one last thing:  please let us know what you think of this day and time.  We want to include as many as possible.  I look forward to "seeing" all of you tonight!
         #BCSM Tweetchat - 9 pm ET.       

Let's Talk: #BCSM - Breast Cancer Social Media

I can honestly say that social media changed my life.
          If that seems overarching let me just tell you a quick story.
          When the economy tanked in '09, so did my supply of free-lance projects.  As I was looking around for additional work, I kept reading about these great unknowns. One was Twitter.  The other was something called "social media."
          Immediately I felt intimidated, as though it was something for cool people to do with other cool people.  I've never been a cool person.  And I was already in my 50's (potentially very uncool even though I'm fond of it). I knew that if I didn't go catch the bus and go to school on both I was going to have a long walk home.
          Here we are today, Friday, July 1, and the introduction of #BCSM, Breast Cancer Social Media, a Twitter chat starting Monday, July 4 at 9 p.m., eastern/8 p.m., central.  Initially Alicia Staley (@stales) and I will moderate, but a conversation doesn't not "belong" to either one of us.
          It's ours.
          And our example comes from watching and participating in three different Twitter chats, the original #HCSM moderated by the incomparable @danamlewis, #hcsmca moderated by the also incomparable @colleen_young, and #HPM, yet another fantastic discussion on hospice/palliative medicine started by @ctsinclair.
          So we'll blend their example with the breast cancer community's needs.
         
It's our premise that the breast cancer community needs to redefine pink.  That's a premise. The purpose of the chat is to find out what YOU think, from prevention, to treatment, and defining what life is for you now, today, as a woman with breast cancer. There's so much to talk about in fact that we'll never be at a loss for things to say. Far from it.

The challenge will be in saying all that's essential in each weekly, 60-minute chat. We hope that by starting up the conversation we can truly change the tide.

            So please join us Monday nights, beginning at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT for #BCSM on Twitter.  All you have to do is type in #bcsm in your search feature and anything related to this hashtag will appear.
            The only "rules" in regard to a tweetchat are to refrain from shameless self promotion and focus, instead on exchanging the best of what we know to help each other. That's what we do every day anyway.  Now we'll do so in one place, at one time.
             I can't wait!