It’s crazy when people talk about themselves in the third person. Also crazy, when virtual projects take on lives of their own. Personification- isn’t that the term? You and me blog, we’ve been inseparable this past year. A proud mama, I am. Drained and exhausted, yup, that too. But to you, today, I say the most sincere, Happy Birthday.
Today marks 1 year for Seattle Mama Doc. It’s been wild– something akin to piloting a plane, taming a wild dog, starting a new business? For me, this last year has been the most rigorous of my life: raising my boys, seeing patients in clinic, writing, creating, and speaking about what I believe to be true in health care. All the corners of my brain are being accessed though, and on most days it feels really good. And today, I must say, I’m a bit teary eyed as I mark all the 1’s in the calendar (11/11/10 for a 1st birthday ain’t bad). In celebration, at the end of my long day in clinic, I’ll bake a cake. Sit at the counter in my kitchen and eat. Should be a nice way to mark the huge milestone for me. In lieu of gifts, will you please leave comments? What have you liked, what can I do better, and of what would you like to see more?
I’m so thankful for the success, the support from others, and the change I believe we are making in improving communication around children and health. Thank you for reading (silently) and for commenting (loudly). You truly feed me, too.
A Year In Review
- My most emotional post (still cry when I read it)
- Most popular post (over 25,000 reads)
- Post with the most loaded comments (I read them first while sitting at the Lyle Lovett concert–that helped)
- Post with the most beautiful picture (I didn’t take it, clearly. Thanks again, Kelsey)
- Post that took me the most time to write (hated it by the time I hit “publish”)
- Post that inspired change (where social media gave me a voice for children)
- Post that helped me process (People often ask if it is cathartic to write a blog. Not for me, but this post was. My friend Shelly is doing great, by the way!)
- Useful posts I mention while in clinic: Tylenol, Benadryl, Preparing for disasters, H1N1, Vitamin D, Working and breastfeeding, Getting baby to sleep
- My favorite post? (I’m undecided)
Am I right? Do you remember this differently?
Here’s to another year. But wait…a day of clinic, and then a bite of cake, first.
Marci says
So many of your posts inspire change. Why stop at just one?
Evelyn says
Happy birthday, Wendy’s blog! As a mother (first) and a physician (an extremely close second), this blog and your journey have spoken to me in profound ways this year. Hurrah for taking medicine (and its reluctant practitioners) into the daunting world of social media and inspiring all of us to be thoughtful about how best to improve the care of our patients. Your voice is clear and strong. You are a beacon.
HereWeGoAJen says
Happy first year! Blogging is addictive.
Alicia says
Happy Birthday Seattle Mama Doc blog! We love reading your blog and love having you as our pediatrician even more!
Marylou says
Happy birthday! I love all of your blogs. Everything you post is very interesting and helpful. Same for when we come in for wellness checks! Thank you for taking time out of your days to teach us or just inform us. Thank you for caring so much about all of are families…
Katie says
Happy One Year to you and your blog! Time just flies, doesn’t it?
Melissa (Confessions of a Dr.Mom) says
Happy Birthday to your blog! What a wonderful milestone. You are an amazing writer and I love reading all your posts. An inspiration to me. Thank you.
Viki says
Happy birthday to your blog! Sure, I’ll leave a comment! 🙂
I came across your blog about a month or so after you started but didn’t read consistently until the Spring. (Possibly the four corners post, can’t remember.) What drew me in were:
You’re affiliated with a hospital that I love, support, and has made a significant contrubution to my family’s well being. So even though I didn’t know you, you had more credibility than the average MD.
Mama Doc Philosophies & If It Were My Child. There are lots of places where I can read medical info. I enjoy that you bring your own voice into the blog. The chocolate formula post & video were excellent for this reason – you brought your own passion to the topic. (Other doc I read are Dr Sears and Dr Greene because there is a distinct voice to the info.)
You write about yourself more than Dr Greene and Dr Sears (though I seem to know a lot of “Martha and me” anecdotes…) I enjoy that about your blog, especially that you’re a mom.
Suggestions for future:
“Ask Mama Doc” – I think I’ve learned more on “Ask Dr Greene” and “Ask Dr Sears” than on WebMD. Would love to have the opportunity to ask you questions that more more than 144 characters in length. 🙂 I don’t think there can be too many questions to ask, though there are not enough hours to answer!
Better commenting system! Many wordpress blogs have excellent commenting systems where commenters can provide profiles, reply to each other, and “like” a reply. This will facilitate community and more interactions. You have consistently high calibar commentors – both medical professionals and parents alike – would love to hear more from them as well.
Finally: THANK YOU!
Matt Cyr says
Congratulations Dr. S on year one!
It’s been fun to watch your blog grow and morph and see you embrace the role of physician-blogger the way you have.
It was so great to meet you in person in Florida in September and have a chance to talk about why blogging in health care is so important, especially for doctors like yourself, who by sharing something of themselves in a well-written and relatable way can make parenting and childhood illness a little bit less daunting.
Keep up the great work and keep in touch!
Matt Cyr
Children’s Hospital Boston’s Thrive blog
AJ says
Congrats on one year! Love your posts. My kids are similar ages so you’re easy to relate to.
One thing I’d love to see is to have you posts show up on Facebook. I don’t think they do – at least not the last time I checked. I don’t use twitter. I think I’ve seen other blogs use something called Networked Blogs so that it shows up in multiple locations.
Happy “blog-day”!
Claire says
Yeah!! Congratulations! Quite a month or so of birthdays! Enjoy all the cake, connections and smiles!
Ingrid says
Happy Birthday Mom! Moms need to be celebrated on birthdays – so drink a glass of champagne. Great work!
Molly says
Happy 1st Year! Thank you for sharing not only your advice and knowledge over the past year, but also your emotion and personal opinion on such a wide variety of topics. I’m loolking forward to your next year 🙂
Jennifer says
i’m a new reader- but as a pediatrician and mom 3 times over i think your posts are FABULOUS! I, too, love to educate my patients and have done a lot of writing thru the years- you pick wonderful topics, write from the heart, and are thoroughly understandable and on the mark. Congratulations! I look forward to more posts to share with my patients!
Katy says
Thanks for the year of insight, wisdom, humor and strength as it pertains to our kids! Here’s to many more years.
e-Patient Dave says
Discovering you, quite unexpectedly, was one of the big highlights of this remarkable unfinished year. You rock. Bigtime. Keep it up, and keep hollering.
Barb says
I really like your frank, open and more human way of discussing parenting medical issues. Keep it up!
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD says
Thank you, all! Really.
The support helps immensely and Viki, we’ll look into these comments options.
DrV says
Congrats, Wendy. You’re making a mark. Great job. Hard to give advice given how far you’ve come. I’ll give you the advice I’m trying to take myself: experiment and see what works. Post length, content voice, etc. Do what it takes to keep in it because your perspective is critical for all of us.
We’ll have cake next time I’m in Seattle.
Nicole says
Happy 1st Birthday Seattle Mama Doc! I appreciate your blogs and enjoy reading them!
Keep up the GREAT work!!
Stephanie says
Happy belated birthday Wendy and Seattle Momma Doc!
I just found your blog and am just now getting a chance to go back in time through some of your posts.
From what I can see so far, and this is meant as a compliment, of which I give very few…anyone can throw up a blog and become a self proclaimed expert over night and a lot of them look just like that. But not yours.
Not only do you give profound advice that most of us can put to use right away, you allow you emotions to enter into the presentation and what we end up with is like a face to face inner circle band of moms sharing.
Thanks again from your soon to be biggest fan.
Stephanie