Tag: healthcare
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The “If I Just” Spiral: How to Handle Emotions Around Treatment Escalation
The information shared in this post reflects my personal experience as a patient and board-certified patient advocate. It is not intended as medical advice and should not replace guidance from your own healthcare team. Through a thoughtful conversation with my amazing rheumatologist (they do exist!), it was decided that it was time for a biologic…
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AI in the Exam Room. Your Job as a Patient Just Got More Important
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I talk a lot about reviewing your visit summaries. Read them. Check them for accuracy. Flag anything that doesn’t look right and reach out to your provider to correct it. This has always been important because your medical records follow you for life. And a…
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12 Things I’ve Learned About Ankylosing Spondylitis (and Axial Spondyloarthritis)
While math and I are typically not friends, I’m going to throw some numbers at you: That is what it took to finally get answers and treatment for progressing lower back stiffness and pain that plagued me for nearly five years. I don’t think I slept through the night without cringing or gasping in pain…
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How to Keep a Medical Binder Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Labs)
Raise your hand if you’ve ever walked into a doctor’s appointment and immediately blanked on your medication list? How about the date of your last MRI? Or what that “mystery rash” even looked like? Yep, me too. Keeping up with chronic illness in the face of fatigue, brain fog, and dismissive providers requires a strategy.…
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Patient Advocacy Lessons from An Orange Cat
This is Mal Purrcino (the white slash across his face = Scarface = Al Pacino). One summer day, this loud-mouthed orange cat walked onto our property and demanded to be adopted, and we obeyed. This formerly feral cat (now fixed and vaccinated, you’re welcome, Bob Barker) has had nonstop health issues. In fact, we have…
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Impatient Patients: Why Rushing Hurts More Than It Helps
Hi, my name is Kristina, and I was that patient. The impatient one. The one who refused to wait another second for answers. I was sick, scared, and desperate for someone, anyone, to help. I ping-ponged between functional medicine practitioners, integrative doctors, and traditional doctors, thrusting my palms out like Oliver Twist, begging, “Please, sir,…
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The Sjogren’s Course I Needed. The Course You Deserve.
Streamlining Sjogren’s is back and better than ever. When I first launched Streamlining Sjogren’s: How to Navigate Your Path to Diagnosis and Treatment, I built it from the ground up with one goal in mind: to create the exact course I needed when I was fighting for my own diagnosis. I wanted to make something…
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What Mental Health Awareness Means to the Chronic Illness Community
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which means your feed is likely filled with soft green ribbons, gentle reminders to breathe, and quotes about self-love. I’m not poo-pooing those efforts. Any awareness is better than no awareness, but if you’re chronically ill, those pastel platitudes can feel more like a slap than support. Because when…
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Creating Your Chronic Illness Support Circle
When you’re living with chronic illness, the phrase “you’re not alone” is tossed around more than a football on a Friday night. But being surrounded by people doesn’t necessarily mean you feel supported. In fact, some of the most isolating moments happen in rooms full of people who don’t get it. Support is not about…
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Trusting Your Gut and Taking Control: A Story of Advocacy in the Face of Breast Implant Illness
The world needs to know that women’s health issues often get swept under the rug, and it’s high time we start listening, talking, and advocating for ourselves. This is why I’m so thankful to come across this personal story on social media. With the patient’s permission, I’m sharing her story (and I hope you do,…
Little Engine Patient Advocacy 