Take a Pain Check

Devyn Nichols, a 14 year old content creator for Take a Pain Check, comes onto the podcast to discuss her diagnosis with undifferentiated Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. When talking about Devyn’s diagnosis journey, she brings up medical gaslighting to which led to her seeing many family doctors and rheumatologists. Natasha and Devyn discuss side effects they’ve experienced on Methotrexate and Pred...

On this week’s episode, Afshin Bhimani discusses her journey living with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. She starts off by explaining her lengthy diagnosis process and how she felt during this time. Once she started to go to doctors to figure out what was wrong, she was unable to find a physician who took her seriously. Moving from India to the States, Afshin discusses the cultural changes...

On this week’s episode, Aleina Margos joins Natasha to discuss her journey with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). Being diagnosed during the pandemic, Aleina starts off the episode by elaborating on her rheumatoid arthritis, including symptoms, topicals and  pill medications that she was prescribed at first. Aleina and Natasha discuss the affects of their medication, like discolouration and how they...

Take a Pain Check’s Mother’s Day special features Jenni Weaver, a mom of 3 kids, that comes on the podcast this week to discuss her diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis and pustular psoriasis. The discussion starts off with the basics, specifically talking about Jenni’s original symptoms that led to a diagnosis after several years. Natasha and Jenni discuss the set backs in terms of communication i...

Dr. Rae Yeung started off her education journey dreaming to be pilot or an astronaut. But she realized quickly, that she had a passion for medicine, children, and rheumatology. The conversation on this week’s podcast episode starts off with a timeline of Dr. Yeung’s journey on becoming a pediatric rheumatologist and a researcher. Dr. Yeung talks about her primary research interest - precision medi...

This week’s episode features Savannah Lohnes - a second year university student from Windsor living with Juvenile Arthritis. Savannah starts off by remembering the time when she woke up bed ridden; she couldn’t get out of bed. Previously, her dad was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and to no surprise, Savannah was diagnosed with JA and then later Hemochromatosis. Natasha and Savannah both bond...

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In honour of Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month, Morgan Harris comes on Take a Pain Check to talk about her story with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Diagnosed at 8 years old, Morgan discusses how she didn’t know what was happening to her body, let alone even trying to explain the concept to her friends. At 13, Morgan underwent a period of remission. Unfortunately, the arthritis came back. Morgan...

Carrie Zamudio joins our host Natasha this week on Take a Pain a Check to discuss her journey with rheumatoid arthritis. Her story starts off with a long period of time in which she was not being treated and then finally getting diagnosed during the pandemic. We discuss all things arthritis, including bone deformity, her medication journey prior to pregnancy and the fears of afterbirth with rheuma...

This week on Take a Pain Check, we welcome Ravia Khangura who joins our host Natasha to talk about her journey living with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Ravia starts off by explaining how she initially spent weeks in the hospital to get her diagnosis. Growing up, Ravia studied and became a pharmacy technician. However, once we dive deeper into her life, she reveals that she switched her careers t...

“No one knows you better than you, so why let someone else talk for you?” quotes Kasey Bouslaugh, an arthritis advocate from Kansas City. This week Kasey joins our host Natasha on the podcast. We start off with the basics: her story of being undiagnosed for 7 years. Then she opens up about her mental health experiences throughout her arthritis journey. The conversation moves to middle school, when...

On this week’s episode, Natasha and Katie converse about what it’s like to live with Scleroderma and Raynaud's. Her diagnosis story went from rheumatologists thinking she was making up her symptoms, to Katie now being under remission. Katie is also a registered nurse who is passionate women’s health. She believes that her story has helped her become a more understanding nurse to her patients. Addi...

“I felt a metallic blood taste coming from my mouth, then my nose, then my eyes. The girl beside me yelled.” This was one of the many situations Jodie Shea was going through in college. This week, Natasha talks to Jodie, a young woman living RA, about what it’s like to enter this world with a chronic illness. The conversation starts off with transitioning at 23 years old and leads into how the med...

Have you heard of Cassie and Friends? Do you know the face behind Cassie and Friends? Cassie? Well, Take a Pain Check explores Cassie and her life in today’s episode. We discuss more of the social aspects of living with a rheumatic disease. When is it the right time to tell your friends about your chronic illness? The conversations heads into what it’s like living with arthritis but also being dia...

This week, Take a Pain Check converses with Kayla Mozill, a university student at Dalhousie living with rheumatoid arthritis. We dive into true university life of exams, accommodations, note taking and study strategies while living with a chronic illness. Interestingly, Kayla never received pediatric care and her first rheumatologist appointment was one that she had to attend solo. To wrap it all...

Kristen joins Take a Pain Check this week for a conversation about the impact of therapy and behaviour. Kristen was lucky with her diagnosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Sjogren's, surprising right? The discussion leads into the topic of friends and family support and jumps right into answering the big question of "how do we as a patient make the right decision for our medications?". Well you might b...

This week on Take a Pain Check, Alexandra DiGiacomo, comes onto the podcast to talk about her international knee draining experience. We dive deep into Ali's passions when it comes to script writing, acting, and being a casting assistant for several popular movies. Not only that, Alexandra shares more about her fitness page, workout modifications and training to go into the junior Olympics! Take a...

This week on Take a Pain Check, the host interviews Marissa Sangers. She is a parent to an 8 year old girl, Charlotte, who lives with Juvenile Arthritis. We discuss the interesting visit to a plastic surgeon, the parent perspective, and the adjustment of parenting skills. Not only that, we talk about going down the rabbit hole in internet searching.  American College of Rheumatology Conferenc...

Take a Pain Check stars Effie K from Chicago, the founder of the growing platform, Rising Above RA. We talk about the basics, diagnosis life and story but things starting getting more interesting as the episode progresses. Want to know why they thought the handicap pass was stolen? The police showed up? Stream the full episode now!  Check out  Effie's Socials: https://instagram.com/risin...

Chaufa Nguyen comes onto Take a Pain Check to talk about living life with Lupus while being entrepreneur. We discuss trauma culturally, dealing with a diagnosis by yourself, and developing a positive mindset. We end off with an advice segment that ends up being very inspirational. Chaufa's social media channels: @chaufanguyen

This week on Take a Pain Check, your host Natasha gets the chance to talk to pediatric rheumatologist Dr. Joost Swart from the Netherlands. They discuss Take a Pain Check's amazing sponsor for the summer, UCAN CAN-DU, the collaboration between Canada and the Netherlands as well as healthcare similarities and differences. The conversation also includes the inside details of what ideal health is, th...

This week we have Cheryl Crow come onto our podcast to discuss her diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, the platform she’s created called Arthritis Life, as well as medical gaslighting. In the middle of our conversation, we dive deep into methotrexate and pregnancy. Not only that, we talk about acceptance and commitment therapy, some life hacks that she loves to share with others as well as the impo...

We had the honor to talk to Dr. Monica Shah - one of the few South Asian rheumatologists on television - this week on Take a Pain Check. We start the discussion off by learning about her passion for rheumatology. We also dive into how it feels to be Ms. India Florida. Additionally, the part everyone has been waiting for, we talk about life as an actress on the reality TV show Bravo’s Family Karma.

Megan Green, the founder of takinpain2pretty, joins the weekly conversation with some very interesting experiences with her diagnosis. We talk about comfort care, the importance of our hair and nails as well as advocating for beauty.

Dr. Michelle Batthish, a pediatric rheumatologist at McMaster Children's Hospital, comes on our weekly podcast Take a Pain Check to engage in the very important topic of transition care. We discuss how teenagers at the stage of transition have so much going on in their lives and an app that was implemented in her hospital that has helped with transition. We end off by talking about the many initia...