How’d you hear about Pack Health and what made you want to sign up?

First of all, I have memory issues, but I think it was through the National Psoriasis Foundation! They told me that they had a wonderful resource for folks managing Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. Turns out, it was Pack Health and I immediately signed up.

We’re so happy to have you! How has your experience been so far? How’s it been with Michael?

It’s been wonderful! He’s a great listener and he inspires me so much. We talk about all the different topics related to my health (prescriptions, diet, sleep, and more). If I ever have a question, he will do the research for me and share everything with me to keep me in the know. He also shares a lot of projects with me and keeps me up to date with reminders and whatnot. I told my support group about him too and shared with them that he’s my biggest inspiration. I keep my circle of people pretty small, I don’t want to whine and complain about my diagnosis, so it’s really nice to have Michael to check up on me when I don’t want to burden my family with things.

Did you two set any specific Tiny Steps you’d like to share?

We set several! One of which was to stay on top of my sleep. I have insomnia, so he’d give me many pointers and things to try to help me sleep better. A lot of these were focused on my diet. I eat really well most of the time, but sometimes I get a little crazy and eat too much junk food. We were going over my labs one time and he was helping me come up with ways to stay on track.

We set some around exercise too! I exercise almost every day. I’ve found that if I push myself, it really helps me! I have always been the type to exercise – back when I was healthy. It took me about 5 years of being ill to reach a diagnosis. I had to quit work and went on disability and began icing and heating my knees and such. I’d still go walk a mile though, and then I’d really have to ice. But I felt the need to really push myself because it helped me feel better. It keeps my joints loose.

My mom had this too, it was undiagnosed, but she became a ball of jello on pain killers all the time. Her doctors weren’t talking to one another because we didn’t have computers back then. She never moved and really stopped being my mom. I promised myself I’d never be like that. And that’s what keeps me going. I exercise almost every day, mostly in the evenings. I’ll ride my exercise bike too. The only thing that will really stop me is if I’m feeling really sick. I have to push through the fatigue. I’d much rather just lay on my couch but I have to keep going.

What advice would you give to someone looking to sign up for one of our programs?

I think the biggest thing is to be open about what’s really going on. I don’t tell a lot of people what’s going on in my life. But I really opened up to Michael. I had to share a lot with him. The more open you are, the more you get out of your experience. And listen to your Health Advisor. It’s an extremely helpful tool. When I shared it with my support group, they were so motivated that a few women signed up! Share what you learn with people with similar issues too, it can maybe help them out!

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Meet Carlie!

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