TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains a discussion about suicidal ideation due to chronic pain, medical trauma and more. This discussion takes place between minutes 28:30-38:00 on the podcast. Kim shares her experiences with medical gaslighting, a phenomenon where a physician or other medical professional dismisses a person’s symptoms, blame’s symptoms erroneously on psychological phenomena or otherwise trivializes a patient’s experience (for example by saying “You’re not sick, you’re just anxious”).
Even after getting diagnosed with bi-lateral pulmonary emboli, a necrotizing lung nodule and periodic paralysis, Kim was repeatedly dismissed as being “hysterical,” “just anxious” and having “nothing wrong” with her when it turns out her lung had collapsed, she had an air leak on her lung suture line and she also had rheumatoid arthritis.
Kim shares her experiences and perspectives with candor in hopes that no one who’s gone through similar experiences will feel alone.
Episode at a glance:
Speaker Bios:
Kim:
Kim has experienced chronic intermittent pain since she was seven years old. She has been written off by doctors as being depressed, anxious, over exaggerating. Her severe pain experience has been in her head/neck/shoulders but more recently it has extended from her hips to her feet and from her shoulders to hands.
In between her daily struggles with pain, she has experienced massive bi-lateral pulmonary emboli, a lung nodule that started necrotizing her lung tissue, hypermobile joints and most recently periodic paralysis. The necrotizing lung nodule was determined to be rhematoid in nature so that put her into the rheumatoid family and a working diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.
Outside of illness, Kim is an academic librarian, an endurance cyclist, newborn foster kitten parent and lover of state and national parks.
Cheryl:
Cheryl Crow is an occupational therapist who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for seventeen years. Her life passion is helping others with rheumatoid arthritis figure out how to live a full life despite arthritis, by developing tools to navigate physical, emotional and social challenges. She formed the educational company Arthritis Life in 2019 after seeing a huge need for more engaging, accessible, and (dare I say) FUN patient education and self-management resources.
This episode is brought to you by Rheum to THRIVE, an online support group and education program Cheryl created to help people with rheumatic disease become more confident, supported and connected. Join the waitlist today!
Episode links:
Medical disclaimer: All content found on Arthritis Life public channels was created for generalized informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.