I remember that it hurt. There was an unbearable amount of confusion and pain that cluttered my thirteen year old brain. At that age, I began to have symptoms that would later be diagnosed as multiple rare diseases.
I have faced sickness and suffering and symptoms that are unimaginable. The agony and the pain was dominating my life, but it became the fuel that built my passion for Patient Perspective.
Pain Attributes to Power
“Please tell me your name, date of birth and the symptoms that you are having,” says the nurse, in one breath. I have heard this so many times at different clinics, emergency rooms, and facilities, that medical staff forgot that I was a person first, patient second. The answers I was searching for were unknown and undiagnosed. Who I truly was, would be learned throughout this journey.
Within Value, Beyond Perspective
I am woman of strength, resistance, and hope. My human body continues to be a mystery to the medical profession. It is my journey, living with a rare disease, that has allowed me to discover who I truly am. Without the onset of illness, that would not be so clear.
I have depended on Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Aurora Health Care, The Mayo Clinic, and Northwestern Medicine to help me escape the diseases that began to attack me as a young teen. But why must I escape this journey? Sure, I would probably enjoy more time away from the Intensive Care Unit, but I would never trade the moments that taught me the value of life and the meaning of perspective.
Pay it forward with your pain
People who have faced the most hardship, live to tell the greatest stories. It is those who suffer the most, that have the greatest offerings. My advice to those who suffer, is to find what makes you feel empowered, despite the problems you face, and just live life to the fullest. It is in the struggle, the obstacles in life, when we truly find what makes us who we are. Through the Patient Perspective, you are never alone. So join me on my mission to embrace the beauty inside the struggle, the essence of finding oneself, and the realization that we have limitless power together.
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