Hi @Smotzer,
Your bio was very interesting to read, I would love to hear more about my experience!
My experience is similar, I am now 17 years post-op from my original surgery and it has been 7 years since my most recent surgery. I have been looking for ways to give back the past few years and thought I might share some of my ideas! I would love to hear yours and other members’ ideas too!
I started by volunteering in the playroom at my local pediatric hospital (where I was treated). I then moved up to the Youth Advisory Council for that hospital. YAC is unfortunately only up to 18 or graduates high school. I was not sure what to do with myself after I moved on from YAC because I know to live in Noth New York, and there isn’t much of a hospital. I decided to join Ben’s friends so that I could give back to a medical community while I was in college.
My next ideas are trying to become some sort of aid for occupational therapy, doing wilderness therapy/rehab, or getting an EMT license so I can work that way. I have been trying to follow my feelings of what I wanted most out of my experience, but have started to realize that your experience gives you a unique perspective and it does not matter as much if the service that you do is very closely related to your disease or not.