This may be something obvious to the fully-actualized adults around me, but a new thought dawned on me the other day: the older we get the more chance there is that we will interact with a health issue. Be it our own or in the health of someone we love, the longer we walk around alive, the longer we have to experience something going haywire.

Pretty obvious, huh?

You’d think so, but up until the past few years, there have been relatively few instances of health issues in my family or in most of my friends. And with that, many of you are saying, “Go on, tell us how it is, Ms. Exempt-from-the-real-world.” Yeah, I know. It’s obnoxious. But it was just the way things were, just as for many of you, the day-to-day reality of a chronic condition or a diagnosis is just the way it is. You don’t get to decline, graciously or otherwise. It’s more than an occasional trip to the sick-child hours at your doctor’s office or the minute clinic in the back corner of your big box store. It’s research, support groups, more research, fundraisers, awareness-raising, advocating, and navigating the world of healthcare.

Some of you are on the provider end of the spectrum. You’re the ones who take the late night phone calls, or respond first when other people run the other way. You know all about the system because you’re one of the people who provide care and solutions for the countless people who walk through the doors of your clinic, hospital, treatment center, or office.

The nuances are many and the world of health and healthcare is multifaceted. What I’m looking for are stories. Real stories of your interactions with the world of medicine and health. Mental health, physical health, mind-body connections, caregiving, miracles, you name it. The one thing is that I don’t have is a deep desire to debate health care politics or anything legislative, although for some that is a topic they hold dear because it impacts the type of care they are able to seek out or receive. So even that is up for grabs, as long as it’s in the context of your story.

Therefore…

[trumpets, please]

In what may be yet another hair-brained idea, I’ve decided to start a new series. It will run on Mondays, and it will be focused on the world of medicine: medical jobs, diagnoses, treatments, alternative medicine, and health revelations. We don’t need a defense of this or an argument for that; what we need to hear is YOUR story. How your health, and the changes in that area of your life, have impacted you or someone very close to you.

Too often, we demand that medicine be an exact science. We want answers, we want a treatment plan, and we want compassion, doggone it! It’s insanely frustrating to discover that, just as our bodies are mysterious and unique, each one different from the next, medicine can’t always perfectly find the exact answer for our exact ailment every time. There aren’t solutions for every problem, and while we know many many things about how the body works, there are just as many things we know.

Do you have a story?

Do you want to share it here?

I’m looking for contributors to this series. I’d love to open up this blog and include stories from people with varied backgrounds and experiences. If this catches your attention, and you’d like to be a part of it, please send me an email [tclarsonwrites (at) gmail (dot) com] or a personal message on the Facebook page to find out more details. Otherwise, stop back every Monday to see what happens next!