End of the Season 1 Reflection

Episode 39 - End of the Season 1 Reflection
I am recording the podcast trailer a bit later than I should have. I am approaching the 1st anniversary of releasing my first episode. I announced my 1st episode to the world on November 30th, 2021.   What I envisioned as a resource for my clinic patients has grown into a project I had no idea it would become. It has been listened to in 87 countries and over 3000 cities and downloaded almost 40,000 times.

Thank you so much for your listenership and support! 

 Looking back at my 1st year of podcasting, I want to record a reflection episode, but it probably makes more sense to listen to it before you start listening to the podcast. So I am including it at the end of season 1 and as a trailer. 

Get Season 1 podcast guide:  https://www.rheumcoach.com/season1
Use this guide to track your progress as you listen to the episodes. It has a list of all episodes included in 1st season, with checkboxes to mark off your completion. It also has a fill-in-the-blank guide to episodes to engage you as you listen - it will keep you focused so you will retain more information. 

RheumMate membership provides coaching and support for people with autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia so you can have the tools to improve pain, stop exhaustion, overwhelm, and survival mode and start living intentionally with plans, goals, and dreams. This membership is intended to be life-changing. If you've been listening to this podcast or the workshops but have yet to implement the ideas I share with you, and you want to implement them but just don't know where to start, this membership will serve as a guide, taking you from a passive listener to a person who is living with intention, who applies the knowledge.  Learn more and to sign up:  https://www.rheumcoach.com/rheummate2022

YouTube video:  https://youtu.be/YeNXowmiS54
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmh3SkdrrBhS--I6_8IJAQ   - a few example videos from the course and other content.

Please email me at rheumcoach@gmail.com if you try it or if you have questions. I would love to hear from you.

 www.rheumcoach.com - my website
If you are not part of my newsletter, please sign up; the link to sign up is on my website https://www.rheumcoach.com/

www.rheumcoach.com/FibroCard - Download your FREE copy of the "Fibromyalgia is real" postcard to share with your family & friends

www.FaceBook.com/rheumcoach - lots more information about fibro
Follow me on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/rheumcoach/

Disclaimer: This podcast provides information only and does not provide any medical or psychological services or advice. None of the content on this podcast prevents, cures, or treats any mental or medical condition.

Transcript

Trailer Podcast season 1

Welcome to the Mind Your Fibro podcast! 

I am recording the podcast trailer a bit later than I should have. 

I am approaching the 1st anniversary of releasing my first episode. I announced my 1st episode to the world on November 30th, 2021.  

What I envisioned as a resource for my clinic patients has grown into a project I had no idea it would become. It has been listened to in 87 countries and over 3000 cities and downloaded almost 40,000 times.

Thank you so much for your listenership and support! 

Looking back at my 1st year of podcasting, I want to record a reflection episode, but it probably makes more sense to listen to it before you start listening to the podcast. So I am including it at the end of season 1 and as a trailer. 

First of all, thank you - thank you again for finding my podcast and tuning in, but also thank you for looking for answers about fibromyalgia. I created this podcast knowing that many patients who have fibromyalgia have many questions, but they are also looking for hope, to hear again and again that they are not broken and that there are answers and ways to feel better. 

For those who don't know me, I'm Olga Pinkston, a board-certified rheumatologist and internal medicine physician, the Mind Your Fibro podcast host, the creator of the RheumMate membership, a life coach, and a busy working mother of 4!  

I graduated from the University of Louisville school of medicine and their internal medicine residency. I then completed a rheumatology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. 

Mayo clinic provided me with excellent rheumatology training and a unique opportunity to learn about fibromyalgia, as they have the world's best and longest-run fibromyalgia clinic. 

I also have extensive training in Cognitive behavior therapy, psychiatry, trauma, nutrition, and lifestyle medicine, and I am a certified life coach. 

After graduating from a rheumatology fellowship, I found myself lacking resources to provide to patients with fibromyalgia. I decided to create this podcast to help patients with fibromyalgia on a path of healing and hope. Most likely, like many other patients with fibromyalgia, you were diagnosed with this condition by a rheumatologist, neurologist, or primary care or pain management doctor. You may have been treated by them as well, but likely you still have questions, your symptoms are not well controlled, and you don't feel well. You may be living in survivor mode, going from a flare to a flare, not knowing how to manage your symptoms. Unfortunately, the standard treatment for fibro relies on medications, even though they often provide minimal relief. 

I evaluate many patients who have fibromyalgia in my clinic, and more often than not, once they are diagnosed and do not have other rheumatologic conditions I treat, such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, I refer them back to primary care. We have a shortage of rheumatologists in the US and have a 6-9 months wait list in my clinic. So all conditions that can be managed by a non-rheumatologist - osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, or fibromyalgia are referred to primary care or other specialists like orthopedics, endocrinology, or pain management. 

Unfortunately, patients who have fibromyalgia often find themself needing more than their doctors can provide - like longer appointment times, more frequent appointments, active listening, and education on their condition, not counting other healthcare needs and lots of compassion. Primary care can only do so much in the little amount of time they have to address this complex condition. Also, not every healthcare provider may believe that fibromyalgia is a real medical condition. 

So, the purpose of the podcast was to create a self-guided resource. To answer the questions you may have about fibromyalgia and to show you that there are many things you can do to help yourself to feel better. 

You need to know that fibro is a real and very common, actual medical condition. You need to know that your symptoms are real, that you are not going crazy, and that you are not alone or broken. That your pain is real, even if all your tests or x-rays are normal. 

How can you use this podcast as a resource? 1st of all subscribe to this podcast to get notified of all new episodes as they are released. 

You may think of it as an audiobook - each episode in season 1 go in order of what you need to learn. In the show notes, you can find the guide to season 1. The Season 1 guide includes the list of all episodes, as well as the fill-in-the-blank guide for each episode, so you can follow along, pay more attention to the material, and have some fun. 

Mind Your Fibro podcast season 1 covers the basics: what is fibro, and how is it diagnosed and treated. Other episodes cover pain science, the pain-stress connection, self-care, diet, exercise, and sleep. This season also includes important topics on grief, relationship, and pushing & crashing. Use season 1 to keep track of your progress; the link to download is in the show notes-  https://www.rheumcoach.com/season1

Many listeners asked me about other ways they could work with me. Unless you live in Kentucky, USA, I do not evaluate or treat patients in my clinic. 

In October 2022, I started a membership, RheumMate - for patients with autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia. This membership is a safe and nurturing place. The goal is to help people practice many concepts I teach in the podcast, so you go from a passive listener to an active learner and actually apply it to your life and have a supportive community while you do it. I incorporate the top-down approach, the cognitive behavior therapy type coaching to help with thoughts, fears, and behaviors that often contribute to suffering as well as the body up or somatic approach with yoga and other practices to connect the body to the brain, pain reprocessing therapy coaching, and lifestyle changes - we are working on the diet, sugar, drinking water, sleep. But most of the work is done to make you feel safe, reduce your fears about pain and other fibro symptoms, learn how to not live in a survivor mode, and start living life in a loving, compassionate way. You will be surrounded by people who also want to feel better, want to learn, and thrive. If you want to learn more or sign up,  https://www.rheumcoach.com/rheummate2022

 Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to you soon!