What is advocacy? Helping yourself and others continued.

During this period of my life, it was my parents who advocated for me, who, by their own resolve, gave me hope that I could get better. This taught me to seek answers and not stop until you were satisfied and to keep going. This is what my parents did for me. It also reminds me of the support my entire family gave me and its importance to my overall desire to find a better way to deal with my health, both mental and physical. This will be a constant in my life and in our families, as we all support each other. I cannot overstate the importance of this. I believe family support, at least in my experience, is one of the pillars to the foundation of advocacy.

Fast forward a couple years and the arthritis goes into remission and I resume a pseudo normal life. The daily dosage of aspirin was reduced to a couple here and there to take care of some minor swelling or light pain. And so, we thought we had won the battle against arthritis. We had done so with the help of whatever was available to us at that time. My family was relieved that, by now I was 15 years old, I could walk without pain, and go back to living a somewhat normal life. While this story is no different than countless others and a far less serious condition than other children must go through, the journey here will have recurring advocacy themes, one being family support. The search for the proper treatment available at any given time and the mental side of having to deal with a major health issue and the role of an advocate has with these.

Fast forward a few years and I am now in my late teens, living in Toronto and have been symptom free for a few years and the arthritis is now in my rearview mirror. Until one day I begin getting lower back pains. During regular visits to our family GP, I mentioned that I was experiencing lower back pain and some stiffness in the morning. While examining me and having my full health history he concluded that I was too active and played too many sports and that this was likely the cause of the pain.

Having faith in what the doctor says, I do not question his diagnosis, nor did I seek other opinions. One night, I am playing tennis with a family friend who happens to be a third-year student at the Ontario Chiropractic College, and he sees me struggling with my back and that I am in pain.

After our match he invites me to visit him at the college to have a look at my back. It was during this visit that I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, an arthritic condition that affects the spine and the Sacro iliac joints. After two years of discussions with my GP, who had my history of juvenile arthritis in front of him, I was diagnosed by a third-year chiropractic student.

Should a 19-year-old have questioned his doctor’s diagnosis and asked for a better answer to his back issues.? In hindsight, yes, he should have and in patient advocacy, there is a way to “professionally question a doctor’s diagnosis". I did not and it is through happenchance that I was able to have the diagnosis done. Had it been done a couple years earlier, I would likely have had the opportunity to begin treatment earlier and live my life as much as possible, without pain.