Important Note: April 15, 2011 – Yes, I am alive, just not so well as I’d like. And I want to assure you that this site is very much alive, too. Although some of the date-sensitive information hasn’t always been kept up-to-date in recent years, the general information provided here is still mostly accurate. Since my health has continued in a slow decline, I find it ever more difficult to accomplish what I want to do in my life. That includes updating and adding to this site. But who knows? Perhaps someday there will be waterfront property in Arizona and I will be completely healthy again and enter the New York Marathon. Actually, I’d just settle for feeling well enough to make this site the best it can be, so all of you will be able to access all the information you want and need about sarcoidosis and an oftentimes companion condition, fibromyalgia. Meanwhile, there is considerable information here to help you better understand these illnesses and how they may affect your life and the lives of your loved ones.

WELCOME MESSAGE

My name is Chris, and I've been diagnosed with sarcoidosis, as well as a secondary condition called fibromyalgia.

In order to promote awareness and greater understanding of sarcoidosis (and fibromyalgia) with the general public and the medical community, I have been organizing a support-networking group, the SARCOID CONNECTION. The origin and evolution of this Web site is explained on my Sarcoidosis Support Networking Group Origins page. This group communicates via various forums such as the Internet, postal service, telephone service and support group meetings. It is based at my present home in the midcoast area of Maine, but people throughout the world are welcome to participate in any of the forums available to them. There are a number of participants in Australia where I lived for the first 1-1/2 years of this Website's existence. If you have sarcoidosis (with or without fibromyalgia) and/or wish to learn about it, I hope you will make use of the information and forums offered here.

Support Group Meetings -- For those of you in the midcoast area of Maine who wish to meet with others who have been diagnosed with sarcoidosis, so you can learn more about the disease, adjusting to having it and coping with it every day, Sarcoid Connection Support Group meetings will be held at least once a month in the Wiscasset, Maine area as interest is shown. For information regarding time and location, please contact me via the E-mail link at the top of this page or by telephone at (207) 882-7099. I look forward to hearing from you.

THE PEOPLE I WANT TO REACH

TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME
AND LIVE EACH TO ITS FULLEST.

~~Contents~~

For those people who like to put faces with names, I have set aside a section of this Web site for information and pictures about the Robert and Chris Townsend families of the U.S.A. and Australia. During my life in the mid-coastal area of Maine, I raised my three children, Daniel, Wendy, and Brian. My nearly two years in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia with my wonderful Aussie hubby, Rob, included my stepchildren, William, Sean, Adam, and Nicole.

My time in Australia came just after my diagnosis with sarcoidosis. Although my new hubby and I both speak English, his accent and vocabulary differ considerably from mine. In learning to communicate with Rob, I found I was learning an entirely new version of the English language that was very fascinating, Aussie slang. Rob and I worked together on a project that was fun and eventually evolved into a Web page for our American friends and family to enjoy, "Rob and Chris Townsend's Aussie Slang Dictionary". Because it became a popular part of my site, I again include it for the enjoyment of all who wish to learn to speak "real Aussie."

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