The 2024 Pulmonary Hypertension Patient Symposium in Calgary was my first rodeo, as it were. I started dating my partner Tarya in the early days of COVID, so I’ve been around the edges of the PH Community for a while, but had never met so many community members in one place before. Let me tell you, you’re all incredible.
Tarya started sniffling on the flight out to the meeting, and was feeling sick enough to stay away from everyone on the first day, but she sent me down, with cash in hand to buy a fancy gray sweater, and a plate and a mug in my other hand to bring her up some of the breakfast buffet. I was nervous about being around so many strangers, but, as I found out soon enough, the community is strange, but not strangers. And, fun story, I was walking around Vancouver before Christmas wearing my PH sweater and someone stopped me and said “Hey, I know that sweater!” and with that, I met another person from the PH Community, we talked, shook hands, and had our days brightened by one another.
Beyond meeting so many amazing people, it was really helpful for me to join the Caregivers’ sessions to hear how folks manage to be supportive, caring, and still find time to do all the fun things we like to do with our partners. It was great meeting new people, and the facilitation in the sessions was really great.
With the Organizing Team, Tarya had helped cook up a really smashing activity for the end of the conference, helping us think with our Heads, Hearts and Feet. She’s a pretty smart cookie, that one. We covered a few tables with butcher paper, handed out markers, and set the lot of you loose to write and draw to your heart’s content, with the goal of thinking about how you were at the end of the conference: What are you thinking about, and what did you learn (HEAD), what are you feeling (HEART) and how will you move forward from this conference (FEET).
Luckily for me, Kimberly and the other fantastic volunteers took some pictures and took down some great notes about the exercise. But the messages were really clear, and echoed what I felt at the meeting. We’re all still learning, whether we’re new to the community, or whether we’ve been in the community for years. With new medications and treatments coming out and so much to learn about supporting emotional health, and one another, its no surprise that so many of us felt like we learned a lot, and still had so much to learn. Ultimately “knowledge is power” as one participant wrote.
Folks filling out the HEART sheets talked about feeling connected, grateful and appreciative, and also feeling overwhelmed. With so much to learn about, and the weight of our own experiences, it’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed, but the ability to connect with so many people in Calgary was so powerful for so many of us. For some folks, this was the first time seeing each other since the COVID lockdown, for some folks, this was their first time meeting the PH Community. For me, thinking back on that time in Calgary, I’m already looking forward to seeing everyone in Toronto.
The last thing we asked about was the section FEET, “What are you going to do with the knowledge you’ve gained here?” Bringing people from across Canada lets folks talk and think about how we can ensure that standards of care, medication and support are consistent across the country. People also talked about taking the energy and sense of community from the conference and putting it back into volunteering, advocating, and building support within the community and outside.
It was such a great time meeting everyone, and I can’t wait to meet everyone again soon!
Simon Goring, partner of PAH patient Tarya Morel.
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