Are you ready to punch the next healthcare professional you see who asks, 'Tell me your story'? Are you sick of asking for your health information, searching for it, collating it, or sending bits and pieces of yourself all over the place?
Self-management is hard, chronic illness is overwhelming. Chronic illness robs you of your independence and control, leaving you feeling defeated and mentally and physically drained. Add to the endless appointments required; now, we also have to be considerate of healthcare systems under pressure. Guess who gets the short end of the stick? We pay with our lives. Perhaps healthcare systems were destined to burst their stitches because healthCARE was never built to care for people; it was made to keep people relying on it. That's not care. Can taking more ownership of our health make a difference?
I was so close to throwing the PainTrain My Health Summary idea out the window when COVID-19 hit. There was no way I could be positive about pushing on with my little train startup while a pandemic was approaching. But as it turned out COVID-19 catapulted telehealth behaviour and with that came increased interest in health tech and a newborn... the digital patient! My creative communication experience always encouraged me down this complex path – I found healthcare primitive! The way people manage their health and the way appointments are managed has not changed for eons. If you live with an ongoing medical condition, we know now that it takes teamwork to manage it and you have to be responsible for your own health information (or it all gets documented incorrectly!). Clearly, I believe that we need to step up and manage our health and all things relating to it. We especially need to do this because we all have such lengthy stories to tell! So on that note, here's my big news from my humble little train which is now planning to go way beyond its destination... if you help me, there's a lifetime subscription in it for you!
PainTrain has followed Pain Revolution very closely over the years and its this research with Soula's experience that has driven the PainTrain concept. We love having your support all the way Soula! Your [...]
(Image from my book, Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait) Navigating the horrific pain journey is complex enough. Patients need GPs who steer them to appropriate treaters via the shortest [...]
Traveling isn’t an easy task, even for those with full capacity and no health issues. So when ‘Liz’ contacted me for tips, I thought I could reply here so that you all [...]
(Image: Written Within* by Elizabeth Banfield hand burnished linocut, kozo tissue, thread ©2017) My sacral stim and I have known each other for a full 17 months now, so I felt it was the [...]
(Written by me, the founder of PainTrain) That’s easier said than done. When I first had my accident in 2007 and literally landed in chronic pain, the last thing I expected to [...]
I know I might be clutching at straws again but at the very least 360 cities is some great distraction and very light in capacity cost. And it's great planning for next time I have some serious pain relief (like a nerve block). I'll be off like a rocket! Ok, maybe not a rocket but compared to the usual pace it'll feel like it.
I remember friends, family, practitioners asking me how I was... "how am I?", I didn't know who I was let alone how I was!!!!!!!! I couldn't cross the street, had to turn spell check on my computer, couldn't speak from the piercing sound of my own voice bouncing in my own ears, couldn't go out, couldn't coordinate myself, I thought everyone who drove was going to kill themselves I was so disorientated all the time, and I couldn't choose between three apples if you asked me to! I slept like a dead person, had no energy, I took a huge dive into the deepest of caves. Actually to sum it up folks, I was depressed... yes, on the anti depressants. That was enough for me to see I didn't need that sort of medication. There had to be another way and I found it.
