A New Bolt at Healthbolt!

Wow, my very own Healthbolt. Who’d have ever thought? Certainly not me when I began fooling around on the Internet back in the early 1990s.

When I came to write here at b5media.com, I was challenged with getting Help My Hurt off the ground. Its focus was on pain and I enjoyed it because I’m quite experienced in issues about pain because of my work as a nurse. I then began to write Womb Within, about pregnancy and finally, I took over Cancer Commentary. All the while, I was reading the very popular Healthbolt blog, wondering if I’d ever get to the level of popularity and followers that those talented bloggers had.

I came to really enjoy reading Healthbolt’s blog entries because it was serious, yet comical. It could have posts that I couldn’t have. I have to admit, I was envious. I found that Healthbolt was a good cousin to another blog I enjoyed,  Cranky Fitness. I loved what Crabby McSlacker did with her blog there and between both Healthbolt and Cranky Fitness, I had some good reading fun. I did have a bit of it with my own blog, Marijke: Nurse turned Writer, but it wasn’t the same.

So, that begs the question, who am I and what I am doing at Healthbolt?

My name is Marijke Vroomen-Durning. I wear several hats and if you come to Blisstree.com to read health information, there’s a good chance you’ve read something I’ve written. As one of the writers for the general Diseases and Conditions and for Men’s Health, I’ve written quite a bit here. I am a professional health and medical writer and – to top it all off – I’m also a registered nurse.

What I love about writing blogs is I get to read about the latest health information and either report it seriously or have some fun, as I do with the Duh Files. The Duh Files, which I’ll be continuing here, are usually about studies that are really – in my opinion – quite stupid or way too obvious and make me wonder how on earth the researchers got the funding for their work.

I don’t only do health writing, I also do fun writing. I’m the publisher and editor of Montreal on the Cheap, part of the Cities on the Cheap network. It’s a fun way to find out what’s going on in your own neck of the woods that’s not only fun, but affordable.

When I’m not wearing a writer/editor/proofreader/nurse hat, I’m wearing one of mom to three young adults, wife to one older adult, and friend of some really great people. I’m a real dog person and over our children’s lives, we’ve had a golden retriever and two greyhounds. I’m also a prolific quilter, I love to read, watch a few of my favorite television shows and drink some excellent wine.

You may, occasionally, see some odd spellings in my writing. They aren’t usually typos. I’m in Montreal, Canada, so I tend to spell things our way if I am working on autopilot. That means sticking a “u” in color/colour and neighbor/neighbour. I usually catch myself but sometimes that old elementary school teaching runs too deep. Yes, because I’m in Montreal, I do speak French, as do my three kids. And, yes, my name is Dutch; my parents came to Canada just before I was born and I don’t really speak Dutch, although I do understand it. Interestingly, I met and married a man whose parents came here from Scotland, so we’re both first generation Canadians in a French province.

I hope I can do justice to Healthbolt and I welcome any and all readers, from old faithful ones to new ones. So, if you want to spread the news, there’s a new Healthbolt in town!

~~~

Image: StockXchng.com