the upside, she says, is that she has got the management of chronic disease down pat. “i tend not to sweat the small stuff.”
“part of it too, is learning to live with it,” she says of advice for others with osteoarthritis. “you have to listen. you have to do the physiotherapy. you have to take the meds when you need to take the meds. you have to do what it is you need to do.”
she’s also committed to her work as a patient advocate, patient partner and patient advisor. she acts as a peer reviewer for the canadian institutes of health research for patient input on grant applications for patient-oriented research. the aim is to make sure that the patient voice is heard.
carla clearly doesn’t want people with the diagnosis to retreat into despair. as she puts it, “it’s not a death sentence. you are not going to be disabled for the rest of your life. do the work with the physiotherapists, even if it hurts. because it’s going to hurt worse if you don’t. you can live with it, even if you’re in a wheelchair.”
what would you do if you were told that you’d never run again when you were 17 years old?
every year, in good weather in a safe place, carla gives it a try.
“the furthest i’ve got is about four steps before i fall and i think, ‘ok, i guess i can’t run this year. we’ll try again next year.’”
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