FEATURES
Catch the latest updates in our featured section on My Several Worlds.
- DISABILITY, FEATURES, HOW TO ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF, MILESTONES, PERSONAL STORIES, REPATRIATION, THE CM EFFECT
Rebuilding Trust in Systems
This is Part 3 in my Repatriation Series. After returning to Canada from Taiwan, I had to rebuild more than healthcare. I had to learn how Canadian systems worked, who could help, and what support looked like when I was no longer carrying everything alone.
Why Patients Become Historians (or Why I Arrive With a Binder)
This is the second in a three-part series called the Repatriation Series. You can read Part 1 here: Repatriation: Healthcare and Disability Do Not Cross Borders. When people imagine a patient, they often picture someone sitting quietly in an exam room answering questions. I have never been that patient. I have learned that if I didn't carry my own history, nobody else will. Patients with complex chronic illnesses often become historians. We are archivists, researchers, project managers, and more.
Repatriation Lesson One: Healthcare and Disability Do Not Cross Borders
When I repatriated to Canada after 17 years in Taiwan, I didn't just leave a country. I left a healthcare ecosystem. My specialists didn't cross the border with me. My disability supports didn't cross the border with me. My treatment history, care teams, and years of hard-earned medical credibility didn't automatically transfer either. Healthcare and disability do not cross borders with the patient. The patient crosses the border. Everything else has to be rebuilt. Five months after returning to Canada, I'm beginning to understand that the biggest challenge wasn't transporting my belongings across an ocean. It was reconstructing an entire healthcare life from scratch.
Blood Pressure Cuff Pain – Why Routine Blood Pressure Readings Aren’t Routine for Pain Patients
Blood pressure cuff pain is more than discomfort for pain patients. A personal look at edema, fibromyalgia, APS & patient advocacy.
High-Functioning Collapse in Complex Care
What happens when a chronically ill patient spends years surviving beyond capacity while navigating trauma, complex care, and systemic failure? This is a personal essay about chronic illness, trauma, medical system exhaustion, and what high-functioning collapse in complex care actually looks like.
Interview With Crafting A Path Through Illness – Germaine Hypher
As May 12 approaches — recognized internationally as Fibromyalgia and MECFS Awareness Day — I share conversations with chronically ill artists, writers, and creators whose work exists at the intersection of illness, identity, survival, and creativity. Over the years through My Several Worlds, I’ve interviewed dozens of chronically ill artists and authors whose work reflects not only pain and limitation, but adaptation, resilience, vulnerability, and truth. Today, I’m honoured to introduce Germaine Hypher, the author and artist behind Crafting A Path Through Illness.
Carleton Place Pharmacy – How Your Friendly Neighborhood Pharmacist Can Be Your Best Healthcare Ally
How can your friendly neighborhood Pharmacist can be your best healthcare ally? Learn about Carleton Place Pharmacy and find out how they showed me how healthcare actually works in Ontario.
Sentences That Stay With You – Words That Cut Like Knives
Sentences That Stay With You - Words That Cut Like Knives There are words you hear and forget. And then there are words that stay. Those are the words that tell you exactly where you stand with someone.
