wellness Archives

Being an Empowered Patient: Getting the Most Out of Your Appointments

By PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry on October 11, 2021 • ( 40 Comments )

Have you ever left one of your health appointments disappointed with your visit? Maybe you had just spoken to a health care professional, but instead of feeling like all of your concerns were addressed, you found yourself with even more questions? In this article, I will present some practical ways in which you can prepare for any encounter you might have with the health care system—whether it is a routine doctor’s visit or an unexpected trip to the ER—so you can make the most out of your interactions with your health care professionals. In short, these tips will show you how to be an empowered patient.

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9 Tips to Help You Manage Chronic Pain

By PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry on October 4, 2021 • ( 7 Comments )

Dealing with and managing chronic pain can be one of life’s most devastating and life-altering experiences. In three or more months—the official duration that defines chronic pain—your new life can seem so far removed from what you would have considered normal, even just half a year ago. Now living with chronic pain, it would seem like your entire life only revolves around hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and medicines. Dreams, hobbies, joys, and for some, even their work, can seem like such a distant memory, one from a healthy lifetime ago. Whether it’s from a severe spinal cord injury, genetic arthritis, or unknown cause, chronic pain can throw even the most resilient people for a loop.

How then, do you deal with the pain and get your life back? Here are nine tips that can help you manage chronic pain.

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I’m Calming Myself Down [a poem]

By PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry on September 14, 2021 • ( 6 Comments )

By Lance Merrick | Featured Contributor

Author’s Note: This poem is a mindfulness exercise that I use to help calm anxiety.

***

Feeling the room surround me
Testing each of my senses
Tasting sweet peppermint candy
Touching my feet to the ground
Seeing blue skies out my window
Hearing passing cars,
the bathroom fan,
My deep breathes and
the crunch of peppermint candy.

It takes about an hour to come around.
I’m calming myself down.

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Blackout: How Going Blind for 3 Months Taught Me to Be Mindful

By PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry on August 27, 2021 • ( 24 Comments )

By Yvonne Aoll | Featured Contributor

Last June, I went blind in my left eye from a laser eye surgery gone wrong.

It would take a speedy instinctive quest for a second opinion, three more months, an older more experienced surgeon and another agonizing correction surgery, for my left eye’s vision to be restored. Thanks to the top-notch, wildly skilled, second ophthalmology surgeon I visited, I can see much clearly now with both eyes, with no need for spectacles or contacts. However, the months during which my left eye remained blind, while filled with unspeakable worries, also served as a crash course in mindfulness.

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High Blood Pressure & How to Improve It Naturally

By PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry on August 24, 2021 • ( 30 Comments )

Have you ever been told that your blood pressure is high? Are you already on medications for your blood pressure? If so, you are not alone. Just in the U.S., it is estimated that half of all adults—over 100 million people—live with high blood pressure…and many aren’t even aware they have it. This article will discuss the fundamentals of high blood pressure, tips to properly monitor your own blood pressure, and ways you can improve your high blood pressure safely and naturally.

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