I think it's an interesting topic of discussion and your writing is funny in such a relatable way. Both directions offer promise. In terms of the first, I think that it could also be helpful considering the Youtube and alternative medicine theories to discuss the WebMD problem with the internet being both the best and the worst source of online information about health. It can have so many answers and most often bad ones that always annoy and complicate being your own health advocate.
To me though, I think the second direction actually offers a bigger payoff. One thing that is also worth researching and looking into if that is the direction you chose is a Buddhist take on health and pain. Namely, there's a whole line of practice called Aging as a Spiritual Practice aimed at using meditation and Buddhist wisdom to accept out bodies as something that will age and decay and one more example of impermanence in life and the problem with trying to "fix" it. But as a 30 year old, I also understand the absurd visual of being the person half (or even a third) of the other practitioners' age, even if our body is always aging.
As someone who works in the US healthcare system at a cancer center, I like reading about the failures of the system that people experience because it sometimes gives me ways to improve what we're doing. I also think that every human experiences shame around their body at some point, so the second version of the article might highlight universal experiences through the details of your own chronic health issue. It sounds like the first version might be more practically useful for folks though. Being one's own advocate is a big deal and something that in my experience we're not taught until we've already wasted tons of time and money and/or suffered in silence for a long time. Either way, I look forward to reading!
Hi! Just read your NYT piece. Absolutely brilliant! I'm really excited for this one to come out as well.
As a dumb medical student, and cancer survivor by technicality, I think the chronic illness angle would be a more innovative and useful angle to take with the piece. 8/10 of the most common causes of death are chronic illness (including depression/suicide) and I agree with Elizabeth H about the importance of reducing stigma surrounding living with chronic illness. People don't talk enough about what it's like to be a young, fit person whose body "failed" them
Also we really need more discourse regarding why the healthcare system is so bad at handling chronic illness. As a community, we completely de-incentivize good primary care for both patients and providers. These folks are the most well-equipped structurally to handle chronic illness, yet people in lower socioeconomic classes are less likely to have a regular doctor and show up to an urgent care/ ER when things have needlessly progressed to a dangerous level.
I'd favor the second angle because being your own advocate the way you were is not super accessible to most Americans though it absolutely should be. A discussion about chronic illness would be able to reach more people and probably provoke a lot of thought within members of the medical community.
Whatever you wind up choosing will be great, though.
I think it's an interesting topic of discussion and your writing is funny in such a relatable way. Both directions offer promise. In terms of the first, I think that it could also be helpful considering the Youtube and alternative medicine theories to discuss the WebMD problem with the internet being both the best and the worst source of online information about health. It can have so many answers and most often bad ones that always annoy and complicate being your own health advocate.
To me though, I think the second direction actually offers a bigger payoff. One thing that is also worth researching and looking into if that is the direction you chose is a Buddhist take on health and pain. Namely, there's a whole line of practice called Aging as a Spiritual Practice aimed at using meditation and Buddhist wisdom to accept out bodies as something that will age and decay and one more example of impermanence in life and the problem with trying to "fix" it. But as a 30 year old, I also understand the absurd visual of being the person half (or even a third) of the other practitioners' age, even if our body is always aging.
As someone who works in the US healthcare system at a cancer center, I like reading about the failures of the system that people experience because it sometimes gives me ways to improve what we're doing. I also think that every human experiences shame around their body at some point, so the second version of the article might highlight universal experiences through the details of your own chronic health issue. It sounds like the first version might be more practically useful for folks though. Being one's own advocate is a big deal and something that in my experience we're not taught until we've already wasted tons of time and money and/or suffered in silence for a long time. Either way, I look forward to reading!
Hi! Just read your NYT piece. Absolutely brilliant! I'm really excited for this one to come out as well.
As a dumb medical student, and cancer survivor by technicality, I think the chronic illness angle would be a more innovative and useful angle to take with the piece. 8/10 of the most common causes of death are chronic illness (including depression/suicide) and I agree with Elizabeth H about the importance of reducing stigma surrounding living with chronic illness. People don't talk enough about what it's like to be a young, fit person whose body "failed" them
Also we really need more discourse regarding why the healthcare system is so bad at handling chronic illness. As a community, we completely de-incentivize good primary care for both patients and providers. These folks are the most well-equipped structurally to handle chronic illness, yet people in lower socioeconomic classes are less likely to have a regular doctor and show up to an urgent care/ ER when things have needlessly progressed to a dangerous level.
I'd favor the second angle because being your own advocate the way you were is not super accessible to most Americans though it absolutely should be. A discussion about chronic illness would be able to reach more people and probably provoke a lot of thought within members of the medical community.
Whatever you wind up choosing will be great, though.