I began this blog in 2011, when much of my time, energy and effort was focused on self-managing my own health, and finding a new path ahead of me having become unwell and stopping my studies as a medical student.
Over the years I found writing this to be a really valuable tool to reflect and make sense of experiences I was having, both as a patient, and lately as a 'patient leader', and connecting with a wider community of wonderful people. The support I gained and the communities and opportunities that opened up to me have been instrumental in my own recovery and emerging identity and directions for the future.
In February 2020, I just started a two-year MSc to study and qualify as an Occupational Therapist. I feel very fortunate to be able to fill my days with the occupations of studying and learning on a professional course!
Some of the early reading I have been doing for my Occupational Therapy course have covered the concepts of doing, being, becoming and belonging (Hitch et al, 2014 - referenced in RCOT 2019 Learning & Development Standards). I can see how the occupations I have engaged in as someone living with health conditions were about 'doing' and 'being', but cumulatively have afforded me privileges to enable me to 'become' and 'belong'. At my worst, my days were skewed towards the overwhelming self-care tasks, leaving little time and a perceived lack of capacity (energy or ability) for any leisure or productivity occupation. With support, knowledge and confidence, I've been able to remove some of the barriers to those leisure and productivity activities, while maintaining a (reducing burden) of self-care tasks.
In her paper, Reflection in Professional Development (2013), Spalding notes the value of exploring the theoretical evidence to justify (or otherwise) our actions. Taking this approach, and reflecting on blogging as an occupation, I found a few papers (that although condition specific, so I have extrapolated their conclusions) which gave some reasons I could relate to about why patients choose to blog about their experiences (Hu, 2019 and Gualtieri et al 2013).
From the perspective of the person blogging, I have experienced the 'therapeutic benefit' of blogging and hope/know that some of these blogs have added value to those reading them as professionals to gain insight into patient perspectives. Building on the benefits of reading patient blogs for the wider community of healthcare professionals, I often give medical students reading lists after my lectures - of texts (most often blogs) written by patients, to give them insight into the conditions they are studying that aren't covered within the text books. For this reason, among others, I don't plan to 'delete' my blog. I plan to find a patient blog to complement the academic reading of each module of my course to ensure my learning remains grounded in the people who we work with.
Whilst self-managing is still an occupation I do each day, it is not the 'headline' of my days as it used to be. The experiences and writings from 2011 to 2017 as documented within this blog will always be a part of me, and the lens through which I see things. Whilst 'patient' or 'patient leader' are no longer the opening to my CV, they are nonetheless an intrinsic part of my personal and professional identity. As I add more tools to my toolbox through my academic and vocational learning, my formative experiences through those years will be the metaphorical oil that helps me think about how to use the other tools (assessments, therapeutic approaches and techniques) in my toolbox most effectively with the people I work with.
The sense of a need to post something to somehow update this blog has been with me for a few months since getting a place on the MSc course. I have also been all too aware that I haven't blogged here since 2017, when I started as Patient Editor at the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and had the opportunity to channel more of my writings through their BMJOpinion platform and editorials. It was a lecture on social media and its professional use and benefits that promoted me to write this, as I wanted to create clarity to give this blog context as time passes.
This blog, and the experiences it represents, are remain valid, in the sense that they are an honest representation of how I felt at the time. Because of it's context in that time and place, reading back, there isn't anything I would change, but I am aware as I deepen my knowledge and experiences about occupational therapy as a professional, I may feel differently about some aspects. The management of different conditions and circumstances will evolve as our profession evolves, while the experiences that people with health conditions have is framed within the context of the time and situation (both personally and socially) through which it was lived.
I hope that this blog remains of value for those who find it!