Personalised Navigation Workshops
One of the most challenging aspects of lipoedema is navigating the health care system to get a diagnosis. The comes piecing together fragmented information on how to manage lipoedema: compression and lymphatic health, diet and nutrition, non-invasive treatments and surgical treatments.
After 2 years of intensive focus on getting a diagnosis, building a fantastic health care team, trialling treatments and defining a program that works for me, I’ve built a toolbox of research, templates and processes that can help you get a diagnosis, and get on the path to managing your lipoedema optimally.
I’ll give you the tools to help you quickly identify your healthcare team, get to a faster diagnosis, and start building your lipoedema management plan in partnership with your healthcare team. I’ll show you how to take control.
Methodical Processes
A methodical approach to building your multi-disciplinary healthcare team and your lipoedema management plan cuts through the noise and reduces wasted time, getting you to diagnosis and treatment faster.
Tools and templates
We’ll use tools like the Healthcare Team Builder, Pain Tracker, and the Lipoedema Plan Builder to build and inform your healthcare team, and get you on the path to managing your lipoedema symptoms effectively.
One on One Support
I’ve experienced the roadblocks, the conflicting information, the scarcity of doctors who are lipoedema-aware. I also have a background in the healthcare industry – leverage my experience to make your journey easier.
What We'll Cover
Methods to identify the right healthcare professionals to reach a fast diagnosis.
The time-to-diagnosis for lipoedema sufferers is estimated by Lipoedema Australia to be 10+ years. It’s a complex Diagnostic Odyssey prepetuated by the shortage of Australian doctors with lipoedema training. I’ll show you how to research healthcare practitioners, to gather a healthcare team that will give you the best possible outcome.
Learn how to record your symptom timeline in a way that helps your medical team give the best possible treatment.
This is crucial. Trying to cram 12 years of seemingly ‘random’ symptoms into a 15 minute appointment doesn’t get outcomes. I prepared a package of documentation to help my doctors get the full picture, which I sent before my appointment with them, leaving our appointment time for deeper investigation and assessment.
Learn how to wade through the research to identify what's relevant to you.
At times it’s overwhelming. Despite the ‘there’s not much research’ narrative from doctors, I found mountains, I sspent hundreds of hours over the last 2 years going through it. The reality is – some of it is old and outdated, some of it is new and inconclusive. Some of it is just literature reviews. But one thing is for sure – if you are a lipoedema sufferer, you have to do your own research. I’ll show you how to cut through the noise, identify credible research, how to determine which research is relevant to you.
Learn how to build and test a lipoedema management program in partnership with your healthcare team.
Implementing
Learn how to advocate for yourself.
With over a decade working in medical devices and more recently RWE, I’m lucky to have a good understanding of how to navigate the healthcare system, and how to keep pushing or look somewhere else when I’m not getting what I need. In our session, I’ll distill this into clear action points that you can use, to get yourself the treatment you need.
How to keep good records of the treatments and lifestyle changes that you trial.
Trying to recall a growing body of information and data as you move through your lipoedema journey becomes near impossible. Keeping good records means you have a neat package of information and data to hand over each time you see a new healthcare practitioner. The more information your healthcare practitioners have, the more they will understand your condition, and the more clarity they will have when helping you manage your plan.
Every day left untreated is another day of chronic inflammation causing damage.
The lipoedema diagnostic odyssey resembles that of a rare disease. In fact, the average time to diagnosis for a rare disease is only 5 years, compared to 10+ years for lipoedema. Every day that diagnosis and treatment is delayed is another day that chronic inflammation is causing damage. If you’re ready to move forward but aren’t sure how to take the next step, reach out.