By
MikeH on
September 11, 2012
Today we’re marking National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, a worldwide effort to bring together people who live with unseen chronic conditions by sharing their stories. Running through Sunday, Sept. 16, this annual online initiative is now celebrating its first-decade anniversary.
A year ago, I shared a simple message: My diabetes can be visible on my own terms, so if I want to wear it on my sleeve, that’s my choice. But if I choose…
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By
MikeH on
August 10, 2012
We all need a little perspective sometimes.
Mine came on the heels of a week of diabetes conference activity and advocacy talk, and it was a reality check that slapped me upside the head while screaming at me about how much bigger the world is than diabetes.
One phone call was enough to remind me that, in the grand scheme, diabetes isn’t that big of a deal. Really. There are a whole lot of worse…
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Nancy Finn’s motto is that “healthcare is not a spectator sport, it is a participatory sport.” In her book, e-Patients Live Longer, The Complete Guide to Managing Health Care Using Technology, released late last year, she goes on to state:
“(Patients) should participate in decision making with their physicians, ask questions, and be willing to invest time and effort in understanding their conditions. Physicians, for their part, must be willing to share information, with their…
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It might be hard to believe in this day and age of “participatory medicine” and empowered patients — or in any day and age, really — but the fact is that an Arizona-based nurse was fired from her job recently for simply providing a patient too much information on his treatment options.
The nurse’s name is Amanda Trujillo, a single mother living in Phoenix, and licensed nurse in Arizona since 2006. She specializes in cardiology,…
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By
AmyT on
February 7, 2012
Sophie Lee has an obsession with toilets – not because it’s some kind of fetish, but because all of her adult life, she’s never known when she’s going to urgently need one nearby, or suffer the consequences. It’s a pretty icky topic, I know, but Sophie’s new narrative describing her 20-year struggle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is one of the best-written “empowered patient” testimonials I’ve read.
Sophie grew up in the UK and went…
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