Getting to Know Kate
Hello there! Thank you for visiting Kronic Kate! My name is Kaitlyn, but you can call me Kate! I am an Emmanuel College graduate with a degree in Sociology. I specialized in the human services track and subspecialized further in the medical professions area of studies. I immersed myself in medical ethics, and society and culture, as I was living my learning experience outside of the classroom by being diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Being diagnosed with this genetic condition changed my life in such a positive way as all of my medical problems once thought so complex finally had a systemic background that we could pinpoint and work with.
However, I quickly realized that those around me had no where near the amount of medical literacy that I had. That is almost impossible to teach in a classroom. I quickly found that I was teaching those around me how to navigate systems that are open to helping you, but that are nearly impossible to navigate well without education. So I held on to my English minor (originally was my Major) and figured that I would be able to combine both passions, writing and medical access into a form for the greater good.
But, why am I so literate in this area? Well, you see, both of my parents are physicians; my mom is a high risk OB/GYN and my dad is a specialized pediatrician. I grew up “hanging out” in numerous hospital cafeterias, conference rooms, doctors lounges, and nurses stations; the amount of knowledge I absorbed was incredible. Children certainly are sponges of information, as told by this phone call example my family loves to share to this day.
I’m about 7 years old at the time, and my mom’s work phone rings, it's the hospital on-call operator.
I answer, “Hello, this is …” the operator cuts me off.
“Oh Dr. Moore I am so glad I caught you! We have a 32 ‘weeker’ who is a few centimeters dilated,” the operator explains, a common occurrence since my mom and I sound virtually indistinguishable on the phone.
“My goodness, that's not good! You should tell her to go to the hospital right now! I’ll tell my mom right away and she will be on her way. She’s just in the shower.”, I said.
The operator laughed and I hung up, running to my mom with her phone.
I go tell my mom, and she calls the operator back. The operator gives her all the information and she leaves right away. Turns out it was an emergency!! You see, my mom and her colleagues' kids all knew the same thing: if the patient and their baby is anywhere near 28 weeks gestation you need to be concerned if the lungs are ready and mature enough to survive outside the womb. The perinatologists and neonatologists sure did love to quiz you while you sat at the nurses station!
So you see, I have countless of these stories and more to tell that all illustrate the informal medical education I received. The whispered, “In case you need to know this one day…” hospital tips turned into the best tips I ever learned and were just completely unspoken. They definitely are not common knowledge either to the general population. I want to bridge that gap.
Personally, my diagnosis list entails more than the following; however, neither of us have the spoons to absorb over 50 diagnoses. These main conditions detail the areas of this blog that I will highlight and feature extensively (although, not exclusively!). If you want a deep dive into my chronic illness diagnoses and general journey, there will be a blog series about it soon. I believe all of this is important to disclose as it relates to giving validity to my experience and in sharing my story:
Hypermobilie Ehlers Danlos Syndrome
Gastroparesis
Dysautonomia and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
Endometriosis (Stage 4)
Food and Environmental Allergies
MTHFR C677T Homozygous Variation - chronic B and D vitamin malabsorption
Chronic Pain
...and many more!
So stick around and see what I have to offer! If you’d like me to take a look into your world for some fine tuning on your own health journey feel free to book a 15 minute evaluation!
