Connected Rheumatology

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Autoimmune Lifestyle

Finding motivation to stay healthy

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Finding motivation to do anything can be difficult. Especially when you don’t see any value in what you are trying to do or achieve. Although most of us would say that staying healthy is a top priority, why do we find motivation to make the necessary healthy changes difficult to find?

This New Year, as we turn the page on 2020 and get ready to face whatever 2021 has in store, I’m offering up some food for thought about how we approach our health and why we may be having problems staying motivated. This advice is made based on years of observation and working with a lot of patients struggling with all kinds of health issues. No one has it all figured out and everyone struggles with motivation at certain points. But what keeps one person going while another finds it hard to even get started is something I’ve been interested in my entire career.

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I love Physical Therapy

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The lessons we can learn from Physical Therapy about our own body and our movement, can, literally, be life changing. Having persistent joint pain or body pain can be frustrating and demoralizing. It can have a profound impact on ALL aspects of our lives, as we may find we can no longer do the things that brought us joy or stress relief. At first, this may seem like a small annoyance, but with time the tension can build and our mental health can suffer. Naturally, we think that this deserves a trip to the doctor, and of course it does. But all too often I have seen the looks of disappointment when I suggest the treatment is physical therapy. What? No shot?? No medication?

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Why getting a diagnosis is hard.

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Understand why you may not be getting the answers you want

No one likes to talk about it, but doctor’s don’t know everything. Gasp! But it’s true. Correctly diagnosing someone can take longer than we’d all like. This is especially true when you have had your symptoms for a long time and have seen multiple specialists. Whether you are dealing with chronic headaches, fibromyalgia, fatigue or mood swings, having symptoms that are not easily seen or found in blood tests makes it more likely to fall into this category. It is demoralizing and frustrating for everyone involved. Although every case is unique, in the video above, I go over some of the most common reasons why people find themselves in this situation. Understanding our system and how we participate in the system can help us work within it to get to answers and ultimately, better health. This video can hopefully provide some insight into why you aren’t getting answers and what you can do to start getting some.

After watching the video, if you are interested in how you can be better organized for all your appointments, check out our Worksheets page! We have tools there that will help you organize your thoughts, medical journey and appointment notes.

Cheers!

~Ortiz