Chronic Disease and College

My guest blogger today is Marina Salsbury

About Marina:

Marina Salsbury planned on becoming a teacher since high school, but found her way instead into online writing after college. She writes around the Web about everything from education to exercise.

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Living with a chronic disease requires time, energy, and commitment to maintain health at the highest level possible. Add to this the difficulties of adjusting to college with its heavy study load, often hectic schedule of courses and online work, and social demands, all while dealing with the upheaval of late adolescence and early adulthood. This is the challenge faced by an increasing number of college students.

Recent research indicates seven percent of college students in the United States deal with chronic diseases. Among these are so-called invisible conditions such as diabetes, depression, asthma, arthritis, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Almost any chronic illness can afflict college students. Some struggle with conditions present from birth, such as brittle bone disease and muscular dystrophy. State-supported colleges have special dormitories and services available for students with severe conditions. However, students who must deal with less visible health problems can get left out of the loop. Even though their diseases aren't apparent to most people, the trek across a large campus can be exhausting for students with chronic fatigue or heart conditions. These students must be proactive in pursuing the services and accommodations that will make it possible for them to succeed.

For those living with chronic illness, any or all of the following can present serious obstacles:

ñ  Obtaining appropriate transportation and/or parking permits close to classes;

ñ  Scheduling treatments, medications, and regular meals;
Dealing with sudden exacerbation of illness;

ñ  Obtaining prescriptions and regular check-ups;

ñ  Managing symptoms;

ñ  Getting needed accommodations;

ñ  Finding personal care attendants if needed;

ñ  Following a fitness plan for optimal health.

A larger issue is how appropriate care and guidance can be delivered to college students dealing with chronic conditions. The usual clinical settings on campuses are geared toward acute care of illness or trauma, rather than the ongoing education and support required for managing conditions that aren't going to abate.

Students with these types of problems need adequate support and special services to improve their health and their chances of success in the competitive environment of a college campus. While the college office of disability services can provide some help, the individual must take charge of managing the condition. The following steps may be of help:

Check with your primary care physician and specialists before leaving for campus. Ask about vaccinations that may help in maintaining health. Obtain a one- to three-month supply of medications and other items needed to monitor and control your disease. Find out where to obtain refills and whom to consult for urgent care. Prepare a list of medications used and any allergies, plus details about your condition and phone numbers for specialists and your primary care physician. Keep copies of this list in your wallet and in your dorm room.

Visit the campus office of disability services and discuss needs with the people there. If no office of disability services exists at your school, contact the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation near your home and ask for help to obtain accommodations for your condition. Services may include having a note-taker, receiving extended test time, obtaining a private room, and other supports.

Check your insurance. It is now possible to remain on your parents' insurance policy until age 26, but make certain this is arranged or you have other adequate coverage. Make sure you're covered if you attend a school in another state.

Visit the campus health center early, before illness strikes, and explain your situation to personnel there. If satisfactory care is not available on campus, find a nearby source of care you can use when needed.

Develop a support network. Inform those close to you about your condition and that you may need assistance at some point. Don't dwell on the subject or ask for help you don't need, but keep a circle of peers, professors, and counselors informed about the situation.

Maintain your treatment routine. No matter how hectic the schedule at school gets, stay on top of your medication, treatment, meals, and exercise as recommended by your physicians.

Get plenty of rest. Anyone sleep-deprived is more vulnerable to illness. You're in charge of maintaining a schedule that will help you stay as healthy as possible.

Living with a chronic condition is no picnic at any age. For college students, it is possible to maintain control of chronic health problems while also participating fully in campus life, but it requires a sensible program of medication, treatments, and physical fitness.

How to Alleviate Anxiety at the Doctor's Office

My guest blogger today is Allison Gamble. She has written an interesting article about fear and anxiety when you have a doctors appointment. Of course, those of us living with a chronic illness go quite a bit so I thought these tips may help you out!

Fear of visiting the doctor is not abnormal, nor is it uncommon. In fact, the National Institute of Mental Health has reported that approximately 19.2 million adults, about 20 percent of the American population, are terrified. Due to their numbers and the sheer psychological strain that accompanies this paralyzing fear of health care professionals, the disorder has actually been given a name: latrophobia, more commonly known as “white coat syndrome.” It doesn’t take psychology degree to understand how the condition came about. Doctors come with the implied bad news of illness, memories of shots from childhood, the pain of the doctor’s exam, even the embarrassment of sitting, naked but for that flimsy paper coat, in the silent room while you wait for the doctor. I’m getting anxious just writing this. Like any other phobia, however, facing your fears head-on is the starting point toward eliminating or alleviating that fear.

Often, the source of your stress over seeing a doctor derives from a lack of comfort with the specific physician or practice. If you don’t connect well with the doctor’s staff or you have had a bad experience while visiting the doctor in the past, you might become severely anxious over visiting this doctor again. Unfortunately, this anxiety will prevent you from keeping your appointment, regardless of the visit's importance. While finding the right doctor is not always easy, it is one of the first steps you should take to overcome you fear. Having the feelings of comfort and security when in the company of your doctor is important for everyone, even for those without fear of doctor visits. Being able to speak freely and comfortably with your doctor can not only improve the efficiency of the visit but may also quicken the pace of the appointment, so that those suffering from latrophobia can get in and out quicker, and leave with a sense of pride and the feeling that the visit was well-worth the time and energy spent.

If you’ve got latrophobia, consider requesting the company of a close friend or family member during the doctor’s appointment. Stress levels increase while sitting in the waiting room and having a supportive friend by your side can greatly relieve this stress. You can also ask the accompanying friend or family member if they can come into the examination room with you once called in. Your friend can remember to ask questions you might be too nervous to remember. Whether the appointment is a simple check-up or if you are about to receive potentially life-altering information, attending the doctor's office with someone who can provide a helping hand is also an effective way to help in the treatment of social phobias. With this support, you may feel more confident speaking to your doctor and, the more you communicate, the more confident you will feel socializing while alone in the future.

Prior to visiting the doctor, you can also opt to call ahead of time and inform the secretary, or doctor if he or she is available, that you are afraid. Requesting that the doctor's office staff and the doctor accommodate you by realizing your fears and lending you support is one of the most effective ways to fight off this anxiety. Once the staff and the doctor are notified of your needs, they may be able to offer special accommodations, such as shortening the amount of time you must spend in the waiting room or examination room, being especially friendly and comforting, or offering you a cup of water to calm your nerves. Most doctors are familiar with this fear and will go the extra mile to make their patients feel comfortable. Knowledge of their patient's fear can also lead doctors to connect the stress disorder with other symptoms you may have, and then work to treat the anxiety by referring you to a therapist or psychologist, or prescribing the patient medication for the treatment of anxiety. If the office staff or doctor does not show the type of understanding you need or they don’t take this fear seriously, you should find a new doctor.

Some people think that anxiety can be ignored, by replacing anxious thoughts with positive ones. The truth is that anxiety normally leads its sufferers to think only of that which they are anxious about. Since ignoring anxiety is not always possible, you can attempt to think through and itemize the thoughts and feelings that are creating their feelings of anxiousness. Identifying the root might help to improve your feelings about the effects. For those who suffer from latrophobia, thinking of the potentially negative things a doctor might say upon their examination can boost one's anxiety exponentially before or during their doctor's visit. If this type of thinking makes up a majority of the source of one's anxiety, remaining occupied is an effective way to combat the stress, such as reading an interesting magazine article while sitting in the waiting room, studying the posters on the walls of the examination room, or bringing a good book to read to every doctor appointment.

Latrophobia is an illness not to be taken lightly. Those who suffer from this disorder without seeking the guidance they need to work through it can become overwhelmed by their fear and skip doctor visits far too often, putting them at risk for physiological illnesses.

Benefits of Complementary Cancer Care

 

My guest blogger today is Jillian S. McKee.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer such as mesothelioma, you are probably weighing your options carefully as you work with your doctors to come up with a treatment plan. While the treatment of cancer will require treatments like chemotherapy and radiation, many herbal and complementary treatments exist that can help ease the symptoms of your cancer and its treatment.

It's important to note that these treatments are not to be used in place of traditional treatments, but alongside – hence the term “complementary.” Follow your doctor's instructions fully and ask your medical team any questions you may have about your treatment. If you choose to try herbal or other alternative treatments, be sure to let your medical team know.

Be careful when looking at complementary and alternative medical therapies. Be especially wary of treatments that make extraordinary claims -- for example, alternative therapies that claim to cure cancer. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. An improved mesothelioma prognosis or life expectancy beyond diagnosis however, can sometime be in the patient’s control as they explore tertiary treatment options.

One branch of alternative medicine is based on the belief that you can use your mind to affect change in your body. Therapies that fall under this line of practice include:

-- Meditation
-- Biofeedback
-- Hypnosis
-- Yoga
-- Imagery
-- Creative outlets, for example art, music or writing
 

Dietary supplements and herbal products, including vitamins, herbs, foods and special diets also make claims about their abilities to help those with cancer.

It is important to note that no single food is known that can cure cancer. Good nutrition is always important, though, so paying close attention to your diet and perhaps meeting with a dietician is a good step to take. Keeping your body healthy will help fight cancer.

Some other methods of treatment involve the manipulation of the body. Many of these therapies are recognized by the National Cancer Institute. Massage, chiropractic treatment and reflexology fall into this category. Massage manipulates the muscles and soft tissues, chiropractic manipulates the joints and skeletal system and reflexology uses the pressure points of the hands and feet to create change in other areas of the body.

The field of energy medicine is based on the principle that creating balance in the energy fields of the body can affect a change physically. Practices that are found in this field include:

-- Tai Chi
-- Reiki
-- Therapeutic touch

The field of complementary medicine is growing, and more and more studies are being done to learn more about the power of natural healing and healing that comes from within. Talk to your medical team and feel free to explore your options. When you feel like control is in your hands, an improved outlook on cancer or prognosis is to be expected.

Reconnective Healing

Friday, April 22nd I will be speaking to Christine Upchurch on Reconnective Healing. @12 noon east
The call in number for questions or comments is 347-884-9691.
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Christine Upchurch, M.S., was headed to what she terms “a sensible career on a sensible path.” That would ultimately mean tabulating cancer statistics for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the facility that pioneered the bone marrow transplant as a cure for various forms of cancer. But something happened along the way to that stellar career at the top of her field. She became a cancer statistic herself.

Upchurch was diagnosed with early stage lymphoma. Upchurch went off to the library and began researching alternatives. So in her 20s, she embarked on a path of holistic healing, and within three weeks her cancer simply disappeared.

The experience inspired in Upchurch a passion to know more about alternative therapies and it was then that she discovered Reconnective Healing, the breakthrough form of alternative healing that tens of thousands of people around the globe are learning to apply to others, to their loved ones and to themselves. A form of healing anyone can learn to do!

Reconnective Healing is the cutting edge of what scientists are calling “Information Medicine.” The introduction and application of scientifically measurable frequencies to the human body creates a state of restored health. Dr William Tiller (Stanford Prof. Emeritus) says that when information carried through frequency is introduced into a system it does the opposite of what physics predicts—it creates coherence and order, instead of the natural state of entropy or disintegration. The result: seemingly unexplainable, often instantaneous and permanent healings from cancers, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, birth disfigurements, arthritis and more. But it’s not science fiction; it’s real as the science by leading researchers is proving. 60,000 people around the globe are now engaging is this work.

It was these sudden and astonishing healings by her clients at the Northwest Reconnective Healing Center that really hooked Upchurch -- recoveries from fibromyalgia, hepatitis C, chronic fatigue, depression and more. Trained in math and science, she needed proof and here it was.

Today, she is one of only three people in the world beside Reconnective Healing founder Dr. Eric Pearl, designated to teach this remarkable skill to others, and the first to have a Reconnective Healing Center in the nation.   

In an era, when healthcare costs are astronomical and the average family is struggling to retain insurance, real healing can come at a fraction of the cost of traditional medicine. 

 Living With HOPE radio show on The Body, Mind and Spirit Network

 

Mental Remission

Image via WikipediaRemission: The hope of everyone who suffers from a chronic illness. Complete, total, going back to my old life remission. Forgetting it ever happened; the pain the fears and the dependency on a medical profession that does not have answers.

It has been 6 years since I became disabled with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy aka Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome. It is a chronic. progressive and incurable neurological condition. Since the entire sympathetic nervous system is involved, spreads can occur to any part of the body; internal and external.

Recently, I have been researching the chances of complete and total remission and the prospects are not looking good. Then it occurred to me; there are different types of remission. Mental and Physical.

In the last 2 yrs, I have achieved "mental remission" . Gone are the days I wish I was dead; gone is the depression that was so bad at times I felt I couldn't breathe. Gone are the feelings of feeling useless; a burden to my family.

Instead, it has been replaced by a sense of HOPE  A "knowing" that everything happens for a reason. I have found purpose in my life again by helping others. Re-gaining my sense of worth. That even though I am not physically able to do what I used to, I can still do something of  value

Everyone needs to feel needed and loved. .They need to laugh and cry and feel alive. These small items seem to fall by the wayside when you are in throes of a chronic illness. Hopelessness becomes the norm. A defeatest attitude can become a habit.

Break the cycle! Find something you can do; even if it is the smallest thing. Try being grateful. No matter who bad things sometimes seem, it can always be worse. Time to take an inventory; an internal inventory. Find your strengths. Fake it until you make it. But, every day that is spent in self-pity, anger, self-destructive behavior is a lost day of your life. Spend them wisely! You will never get another one just like today. Don't wast another one.