Patient Commando’s “Share Your Story” program gives patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals a world class catalogue of personal stories providing insight to the lived illness experience.
Our website is a platform for the voice of the patient as told in their own words. Using the medium of their choice, patients and those who speak for them can post their own story whether in prose, poetry, video, song or photo.
Every patient has a story. The very act of telling our story makes us feel good. When the story comes from an honest place and is well told, it has the power to change lives.
Share your story and change the world.
- Recent Stories
- Featured Stories
- Featured Writers
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Provider / Patient Communications – Part One
Bob Newhart and Mo Collins dramatize an interaction between a patient and a healthcare provider. There's a lot of ongoing discussion about methods to use to improve communications between patients and professionals. Newhart, reprising his famous psychologist role, illustrates a method many patients feel is all too common. Read More…
Tagged Under: comedy, communication, humour, listening -
My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech
Zach Sobiech passed away May 20, 2013. Our hearts and prayers are with his family and friends. We are forever touched by his story. Thank you for sharing your life and music with us, Zach. You are dearly missed and loved. Published on May 3, 2013 Zach Sobiech is a 17 year old diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. With only months to live, Zach turned to music to say goodbye. Zach turned 18 years old today (May 3rd, 2013) and continues his fight against cancer with a smile that can change the world. Happy Read More…
Tagged Under: cancer, young adult, Zach Sobiech -
Valleys: Episode 6 – ‘The Choice’
Published on May 7, 2013 "The only true defeat is giving into bitterness. No matter how our cancer journey ends, we can all be victorious." - Mike, Valleys: Episode 6. In the finale of the Valleys webseries, Amy talks about the most important thing that gets her through treatments and Annie shares what she has learned about being the best supporter to someone with cancer. More Episodes of Valleys Read More…
Tagged Under: mike lang, valleys, young adult cancer
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Provider / Patient Communications – Part One
Bob Newhart and Mo Collins dramatize an interaction between a patient and a healthcare provider. There's a lot of ongoing discussion about methods to use to improve communications between patients and professionals. Newhart, reprising his famous psychologist role, illustrates a method many patients feel is all too common. Read More…
Tagged Under: comedy, communication, humour, listening -
My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech
Zach Sobiech passed away May 20, 2013. Our hearts and prayers are with his family and friends. We are forever touched by his story. Thank you for sharing your life and music with us, Zach. You are dearly missed and loved. Published on May 3, 2013 Zach Sobiech is a 17 year old diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. With only months to live, Zach turned to music to say goodbye. Zach turned 18 years old today (May 3rd, 2013) and continues his fight against cancer with a smile that can change the world. Happy Read More…
Tagged Under: cancer, young adult, Zach Sobiech -
Annie’s story.
At 21 weeks gestation, we were informed that our daughter, Annie, had a genetic condition associated with profound disabilities. Thus began the most difficult but, ultimately, most enriching journey of our lives. We realized it was highly likely that Annie would require life-saving interventions in her infancy. From the outset, we wrestled with an agonizing, moral question: Would these interventions and the preservation of her life be in the best interests of our daughter and our family? To make an informed decision, we began to research. We discovered children who were certainly very impaired, and we were afraid. However, as Read More…
Tagged Under: consent, disability, discrimination, end of life, eugenics, health policy, trisonomy -
Health Through Movement: How Nia Changed My Life
By Jennifer Hicks After 34 years living in my body, I became an expert. That is, an expert in myself. And I discovered, after all that time, that I am not ordinary. I have Bipolar Disorder. But that’s not what makes me different. I am unique because of how I have learned to manage my Bipolar Disorder. Yes, I need medication and psychotherapy, but there’s more to my wellness plan. I use Nia – a fitness practice which not only offers me physical fitness, but also a lifestyle, and now a profession. Looking at me, you’d never know I have Read More…
Tagged Under: bipolar disorder, dance, featured writer, fitness, jenn hicks, mental illness, movement, music, nia, patient story, psychotherapy -
Sonia
I have Cystic Fibrosis, CF. Its a rare diagnosis that forces me to live like a top athlete in order to stay fit and free from injuries. Home treatments take approximately two hours every day, all year round. I must always be careful not to get ill and healthcare is a lifelong partner. - Sonia Hager, 9 years old. Published on Apr 22, 2013 Read More…
Tagged Under: CF, cystic fibrosis -
Valleys: Episode 4 – ‘Letting Go’
Published on Apr 24, 2013 "I know I can't control everything, but I can't completely let go either." Amy, Valleys: Episode 4 -- "Letting Go" Amy talks about her biggest fear and Annie shares her feelings honestly with Amy. Both of them take steps to begin letting go. More Episodes of Valleys Read More…
Tagged Under: mike lang, valleys, young adult cancer -
The SCAR Project
The SCAR Project is a series of large-scale portraits of young breast cancer survivors shot by fashion photographer David Jay. Primarily an awareness raising campaign, The SCAR Project puts a raw, unflinching face on early onset breast cancer while paying tribute to the courage and spirit of so many brave young women. Dedicated to the more than 10,000 women under the age of 40 who will be diagnosed this year alone, The SCAR Project is an exercise in awareness, hope, reflection and healing. The mission is three-fold: raise public consciousness of early-onset breast cancer, raise funds for breast cancer Read More…
Tagged Under: breast cancer, David Jay, photography, The SCAR Project -
Molly’s P.INK Tattoo
Personal Ink (P.INK) P.INK provides tattoo inspirations, ideas, and artist info to breast cancer survivors. To share or pin your own stories, design ideas, and favorite artists, email help@p-ink.org. It’s difficult to overstate how difficult breast cancer can be for the sufferer, and surviving it can be especially challenging if surgery has left patients with scars, amputations or other changes to their body. Now, the P.INK campaign aims to use decorative tattooing to help women cover up marks, forge community bonds and increase self-esteem. The platform operates as a Pinterest group, where users can post their own stories about dealing Read More…
Tagged Under: breast cancer, survivorship, tattoo -
Stanford Medicine X in conversation with Katie McCurdy
Stanford Medical Student Joyce Ho has a conversation with user experience designer Katie McCurdy on self-tracking. More from Katie McCurdy - [sensical] Read More…
Tagged Under: Katie McCurdy, Myasthenia Gravis, timeline, UX, Visualizing, [sensical] -
Medical history timeline: a tool for doctor visit storytelling
Originally Posted on January 3, 2012 By: Katie McCurdy This is a follow-up to my last post, in which I described how visualizing one’s own medical symptoms and progress in the form of a timeline (in addition to other visualization formats) might help people better understand what is happening to them – and help them communicate with health care practitioners. I recently took a print-out of my own medical timeline (which I had created from memory) to a new Doctor I was seeing, hoping that the visualization of my symptoms and medications would help him better understand what I was experiencing Read More…
Tagged Under: Katie McCurdy, Myasthenia Gravis, timeline, UX, Visualizing, [sensical]
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Health Through Movement: How Nia Changed My Life
By Jennifer Hicks After 34 years living in my body, I became an expert. That is, an expert in myself. And I discovered, after all that time, that I am not ordinary. I have Bipolar Disorder. But that’s not what makes me different. I am unique because of how I have learned to manage my Bipolar Disorder. Yes, I need medication and psychotherapy, but there’s more to my wellness plan. I use Nia – a fitness practice which not only offers me physical fitness, but also a lifestyle, and now a profession. Looking at me, you’d never know I have Read More…
Tagged Under: bipolar disorder, dance, featured writer, fitness, jenn hicks, mental illness, movement, music, nia, patient story, psychotherapy -
The Portrait: Simple Yet Complex, Obvious Yet Profound Part 1: The Eyes
By Judith Leitner Over a century and a half ago, most folks were unable to create tangible visual links to their past. Many lacked the financial means necessary for creating pictorial inventories of themselves and their ancestors through the pricey art of Portrait Painting. Then, in 1839, Charles Daguerre in France and Henry Fox Talbot in England both announced that they had devised a way to ‘fix an image’, and the art and magic of Photography was born. With its affordable price tag, this clever novelty would enable everyman to express a primal, compelling need: to record, share and Read More…
Tagged Under: Alzheimer, Alzheimer's, art, camera, creative coping, dementia, detachment, featured writer, intimacy, judith leitner, lens, metaphors for illness, photography, portrait -
How Did I Quit Smoking? I Just Stopped!
By Sean McDermott I had quit smoking so many times that I decided not to use that word ever again and now when I hear people say that they have “quit”, I take it lightly and reserve comment. Quitting is something that you fear, something that you approach slowly and have a plan in place to overcome the odds, the mood swings, the cravings. I had no such thing. Let me give you some untypical background. In July of 2007 I arrived at Toronto Western Hospital in an ambulance dying of Liver Disease from Alcoholism. I know this because they Read More…
Tagged Under: AA, addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, change, drinking, featured writer, how i quit smoking, liver disease, liver transplant, organ donor, quitting, rehbilitation, sean mcdermott, sobriety, toronto western hospital, transplant