Sunday, November 14, 2010

Lotsa Helping Hands

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm being treated for ovarian cancer via chemotherapy - starting on Monday (eep!). Since my diagnosis, everyone has asked what they can do to help. It feels great that so many people want to contribute in some way. However, sometimes mass offers of help can feel overwhelming. I needed a way to organize it all.

Enter Lotsa Helping Hands (LHH). LHH allows anyone to create a free, private, web-based community for organizing friends, family and colleagues during times of need. Coordinating activities and managing volunteers is streamlined, allowing time for help instead of wasting it on scheduling. I invited about 20 friends and family members to join my community. I then created a calendar showing the days I need rides, meals, etc and members of my community can pick days to volunteer those services. The calendar also shows which needs have been met versus ones that still need to be filled. There's a place to enter important contact or medical information in case of an emergency and the site can be set so that members can see each others' contact information if desired. What a great idea! I definitely feel at ease knowing I have a wonderful (and organized) network of support.

Kristen Ziegler

3 comments:

Sara Bereika said...

Holy crap Kristen! Mindy and Cathy said you were having some health problems but I didn't know it was Ovarian Cancer!!! My mother went through chemo about 3 or 4 years ago for OC. She was getting a hysterectomy and they found a mass that was cancerous. Since then she has been REALLY involved in the NOCC (National Ovarian Cancer Coalition). She is currently the president of the Richmond chapter. If you feel the need to connect with others with OC, let me know. I'd be more than happy to connect you.

I know this may not be comforting, but it is a miracle that you learned you had OC so early. As I'm sure you now know, It's such a scary, quiet cancer. I have no doubts you'll come out of this just fine since you caught it so early! You have some amazing guardian angels my friend.

Please let us Abundance girls know if you need ANYTHING! We'd be happy to help any way we can.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Thanks Sara! Sorry for the delayed response - I'd love to get in touch with your mom if you'd like to email me her contact info, or vice versa.