They sit around a table – two people from Sicamous, one from Malakwa and six from the Salmon Arm area.
They have different features, likes and dislikes.
But there is one thing that binds them together, which has turned them into something akin to family over several weeks – pain, chronic unrelenting pain.
The eight women and one man have just completed a free, six-week course they say has changed their lives.
Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions self-management program is offered by University of Victoria’s Centre for Aging and is available locally at Shuswap Lake General Hospital.
Kathy Pilcher has survived two serious car accidents and suffers constant pain in her neck and face, has bones missing in her shoulder, arthritis in her back and hips, has had one knee surgery and is looking at another.
“The shared knowledge is as good as or better than the book,” says Pilcher, referring to a free textbook given to participants. “I’ve been given more avenues of managing pain and depression.”
No one would know by looking at her that Janet Letendre copes with an unbelievable number of serious conditions – lupus, hypothyroid, celiac disease, Sjogrens syndrome (dry eyes and throat), Raynaud’s syndrome in which blood flow and oxygen supply is seriously restricted to her hands, chronic upper and lower back pain, and more. She is thrilled to have finally found a group where she feels she belongs.
“When we are talking, we discover that 90 per cent of us have the same symptoms and emotions,” she says. “So we can help motivate each other and develop action plans.”
Group facilitators Gwen Wall and Linda Wooster are thrilled with the success of this their first group.
The two women took the facilitator’s training course offered in the fall and were excited to share their experience.
“I’m really impressed with this, it’s a great tool for self-management,” says Wall, who has worked in health care for 30 years and has seen a remarkable change in the participants. “Everybody here has improved. They’re more social, more positive, they’re wearing makeup.”
While Wooster does not have chronic pain, she lives with someone who does and was excited about the changes for better in her life.
“Everything from diet and exercise,” she says. “What was new to us was communicating, positive thinking and developing a self-management action plan.”
Wooster is impressed with how the group members have brainstormed together to find solutions for the depression common to people with chronic pain.
“The ideas were great, I’ve jotted some down in a book,” she laughs.
Terry Cayer, program co-ordinator for the B.C. Interior, is not surprised. She says the chronic illness and pain workshops have been running since 2000.
“I know that there’s been more than 16,000 people enrolled in the program,” she says.
A chronic disease workshop begins Thursday, March 10, 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the hospital. A chronic pain workshop begins Monday, April 4 from 1 to 3:30. For more information, call toll free 1-866-902-3767.