Over the weekend, I saw Dr Doireann O Leary put up an Instagram post referencing a study which looked at the conduct of medical professionals on their personal social media. This study inferred that these professionals, namely vascular surgeons, were being inappropriate in the way that they conducted themselves online, in a number of ways, including the uploading of holiday photographs wearing swimwear, drinking alcoholic drinks and expressing political views. This investigation of social media accounts was done by male “researchers” setting up fake accounts to spy on their medical colleagues to report their findings. Quite rightly, Dr Doireann’s post lambasted this “study” for what it was – an unethical, in many ways misogynistic, double standard holding piece of research which really held little to no value. It professed that this content would negatively impact their future careers if made public to their future patients and employers.
Showing all posts tagged pain
International Pain Awareness Month
September is International Pain Awareness Month. Now, I know that sounds like a bit of an unnecessary one. We all know pain is real, we know it exists, why does it need a month? Well, as someone living with chronic pain, there’s a lot that people DON’T KNOW, or assume instead of actually finding out. So, the hope of this International Pain Awareness Month is to inform, to educate and to hopefully bring a greater understanding to the larger population lucky enough to not directly experience chronic pain as to what we’re going through.
Humira Didn’t Work For Me – So What’s Next?
For the last six weeks, I’ve been taking a drug called Humira which was meant to help get rid of my chronic pain issues. The general gist of how it was to do that was that it would tell my immune system to cop onto itself, stop fighting itself and calm down the inflammation which my doctors think is causing all the pain to kick off. I was so hopeful that it would work. Living in pain all day every day has been my life for the last five years and it’s bloody hard, so I have tried MANY things to get rid of it. But sadly, this time was not meant to be, Humira didn’t work for me. Here is my experience with the drug and what we are planning to try next in the hopes of getting me pain-free (or at least able to function).
The Chronic Pain / Chronic Illness Alphabet
As someone who lives with chronic pain and chronic illness, I’ve got a fair bit of downtime. I’m currently out of work as managing full time employment when your pelvis screams at you for sitting down isn’t exactly the easiest proposition. However, the child is in Montessori all day, so I have had to find something to keep my mind busy or I’ll go completely demented (there is only so much The Good Wife re-runs a woman can manage). And so, my latest creation is this: The Chronic Pain/Chronic Illness Alphabet – an A-Z guide to Chronic Life. Hopefully it will ring a bell with others who are living with chronic conditions, and bring some more understanding to those lucky enough to not interact with it.
What It’s Like To Be Stuck In The Middle With No Diagnosis
This post has taken me a long time to write. I’ve previously written about my struggles with mental health, and with my journey through life with chronic pain, and in my head this feels like it should be an extension of it. This post was started in April and has been living in my drafts ever since – down to things changing, trying to do more research, trying to wait until I had an answer. And so, here I am, in mid July, feeling like we’ve not really moved on that much, living with life with no diagnosis to show for it. Read More
Learning To Manage Chronic Pain
I’ve suffered with chronic pain in my back for the last two years, since an incident during my pregnancy with Eliott. It has had a large effect on my life and has made me look at how I do things in a different way. Having read “Pain Free Living” a few months back, I was introduced to the existence of Chronic Pain Ireland, a charity which helps people like me, who are living with chronic pain, providing supports.
Who needs teeth anyway?
Teething, thou art a heartless bitch. We got two teeth in a while back, and while it was a horrible few days (after three months of whining and red cheeks), both teeth popped up within 24 hours, and now we’re able to bite on our finger food before mushing it into the rest of our face/Mammy’s clean work clothes. This time around, it isn’t going as simply. Read More