I see this is a new community and that is good. It gives us all a better chance to grow and get to know everyone.

Being as this is the introduce yourself thread, I'll begin by ...well introducing myself.

My name is Mike Odom and I live in Melbourne Florida. I do not have lupus myself, my wife has discoid. I refer to Cindi as my wife as we have been together for almost 14 years, so close enough.

So anyway, I am a member of LFA and I attend all of our local chapter support group meetings with Cindi. I try to be supportive of her in every way possible as well as trying to help others in the lupus community.

I asked Cindi if we could start going to the support groups because I wanted her to see that she was not alone. I have seen many times when she seemed to think that she was all alone with her condition and the way it made her feel. She was actually surprised to see that there are others that hurt and have the same reactions as she does. I know that my being with her helps, but I suppose that she still felt alone with the disease itself.

That is also one of the reasons why I joined this group. I am here to help and to learn. I work a lot on the web and so I hope to be able to contribute a little to this community by linking and bringing in new members. I have a blog that I write articles quite often about lupus, so I am hoping that through some of my posts on the subject others may find this site and have it become useful for them.

That is about it for now. I will try to drop in once and a while and respond to others as the community grows.

MNO

Ann X