Medisafer Story: Olivia

Olivia is a 26-year-old Medisafer from the UK and is the proud mom to four adorable cats. Since she was 12 years old Olivia has suffered from chronic, often debilitating pain. Over the course of the past fourteen years she’s come to know all the relevant medical terms her doctors use and isn’t afraid to interrogate them or ask for second opinions.
When Olivia hit puberty she started experiencing chronic back pain making it very difficult for her to walk. Her doctors gave her pain medications or anti-inflammatories. She started to experience significant stomach pains as well, which prompted her doctors to give her medications for her stomach.
By the time she was 16 Olivia was very skinny and facing more complications because of her height. Tests done by her doctors revealed she was highly anemic and that she had developed a stomach ulcer which had been bleeding for years. She can no longer take anti-inflammatory medications.
Before Olivia found Medisafe, she was keeping track of all her medications in a notebook. When one filled up, she’d start a new one, keeping the old one safe so she’d have a record of every medication she had been on.
With Medisafe, Olivia has all that information with her at all times. She finds this particularly helpful because the specialists she sees don’t have records from her general practitioners (GPs) but now she doesn’t have to wait for records to be sent over to inform her new doctor about her medication regimens.
She even keeps Medisafe in her navigation bar on her phone! Easy access all the time.

Favorite Features:

Videos: Olivia says that often when people are prescribed a new medication they take it without learning more about what it is or why it’s being prescribed. The videos are helpful in educating new patients.
Pet tracking: Two of Olivia’s cats take medications. One of them needs to take his prescription twice a day, exactly 12 hours apart. With Medisafe Olivia can keep track and show her vet exactly how consistent they’ve been.

Message to Society:

Olivia shared what seems to be a simple experience: taking the bus. She has a bus pass for disabled persons, which has her picture on it so it’s clear she is the rightful owner of the pass. Still, Olivia says there have been incidents where bus drivers have refused her entry to the bus in accordance with the rules of the bus pass. While she looks reasonably healthy from the outside, she also sometimes uses a walker, and says that the reactions of acquaintances and passersby show that society struggles to accept that disabilities are not linear in presentation.

Final thought:

Don’t be quick to judge others, try to put yourself in their shoes.
 
And we couldn’t leave you without a cat pic: