Welcome to our Blog
We are excited to begin this page and I will jump right in with some statistics.
Did you know that 70% of people age 55 to 65 have at least one chronic condition. 50% have two or more. The numbers increase with age.
Chronic conditions like Diabetes, Heart disease, Arthritis, COPD, Obesity or Lymphedema, can get in the way of living. When we are told the big C-word Chronic, it can give a sense of hopelessness. We can misunderstand it to mean that nothing can be done to feel better. We feel stuck. Maybe I can clarify chronic. Most of the time, that means that there is currently no known cure by medication or surgery. However, there is a lot of information and research available on how to manage most chronic conditions to minimize the symptoms. There are ways to adapt, ways to feel better, have more energy and be able to do the things we like to do. Despite of the condition.
Our intention for this blog is to post useful articles and information about self management of chronic conditions. We can call it Self Care Therapy.
So, a quick word about who we are. We are a group of Occupational Therapists that have specialized in a specific chronic condition, Lymphedema. We have been inspired by how life-changing it has been for our patients to learn to self manage this condition and get back to living life. We believe that the same universal principles we have used to help our patients learn to self manage Lymphedema, can be applied on other chronic conditions as well. That is: 1. Reducing symptoms as much as possible 2. Learn to self manage and adapt 3. Get back to living life. When self management becomes a part of your automatic routine, like brushing your teeth, you can focus your energy on what is important to you.
Since our last 12 years have been largely spent with people with Lymphedema, you can expect to find information here on that topic. But, our intention is to post a wide variety of useful information that can help in the daily life challenges caused by chronic illness, disability and aging.
This page is not about us, it may be about you. We hope that you will find useful information here.
One more thing. If you have a general question, request for a topic, ideas for daily life solutions or an experience to share, contact us via this website and we might post it here, if we believe it would be helpful to others as well.