A 'chronic-illness résumé' helped me get better healthcare after 10 years without progress. Here's how I made one.

I grew frustrated when my blood sugar kept rising. I made a document detailing my medical history for my doctor, and it changed everything.

• I have type 2 diabetes, and after 10 years with my endocrinologist, I wasn't seeing progress.
• I sought out a new practitioner and decided to approach things differently. 
• I created a 'chronic-illness résumé,' and I believe it made a huge difference in my care.

After seeing the same endocrinologist for type 2 diabetes for 10 years, I felt like my progress had stalled due to poor communication between the two of us, and I needed a change. My blood sugar was continuing to climb, and I left every appointment feeling like a failure. 

I found a different endocrinologist at a new practice, but I feared we would enter the same slow stalemate of chronic-illness progression if I didn't approach our doctor-patient relationship differently. A lot of nuance is left out when interactions are based solely on lab results; I'd never felt like I had the chance to truly connect with a doctor during brief office visits or for them to learn about all I'd experienced in my decade living with diabetes.

I decided to start this new healthcare relationship with vulnerability and a spirit of collaboration. The registered dietitian I worked with suggested I share a "diabetes résumé" with the endocrinologist to summarize my past experience with diabetes treatments, challenges, and what I needed from my healthcare team in a one-page document that made me more than a case file to my doctor. I shared my diabetes résumé with the doctor and instantly my treatment was more personal.

Why a chronic-illness résumé is important

People living with chronic illnesses — especially those who have been dealing with them for years — have different a relationship with healthcare providers and systems than those in good health. Often we see one or more specialists and have tried different treatments with varying success. It can be exhausting going over our story time and again, but it's important to share your chronic-illness experience with the people who want to help you meet your health goals.

Still, there's an undeniable power dynamic between patients and doctors. You may not feel empowered to assert your voice once you're actually at your appointment. You may sympathize with healthcare workers who are crunched for time and stressed by overwhelming schedules or forget what you wanted to talk about.

Overcoming the discomfort of demanding attention and sharing your experiences, symptoms, and goals for treatment are worth it for a better outcome — and creating a chronic-illness résumé can help you organize all that information, for both yourself and your doctor. 

How to create a chronic-illness résumé

Your chronic-illness résumé is a key to unlock empathy and better healthcare for patients — and it helps doctors, who are often vulnerable to burnout. You can create your document in your own time and in your own relaxed environment rather than struggling to give all your important backstory in a rushed appointment. 

While patient-intake forms will cover the basics like surgeries, current medications, and family history, providing a full picture of what it's like to live with your chronic illness may require more detail — a résumé can enrich your medical history with context specific to you.

Your chronic illness document might include these topics:

• Your objective for seeking treatment
• A simple chronology of treatments you have tried and whether they did or didn't help
• Details about your lifestyle and activities
• Major stressors in your life or stumbling blocks to treatment
• You may also want to include names and contact info of any other healthcare providers you work with and ask about signing forms to allow your providers to share information on your behalf

Here's what I included in my diabetes résumé for my new endocrinologist:

• Date of diagnosis and an abbreviated history of treatments I had tried
• My experience with diet, exercise, and attempted weight loss. Because these are often the first recommendations for managing diabetes, I wanted her to be aware that I had already attempted and been negatively impacted by diet culture in healthcare.
• My history of burnout and the emotional toll of living with chronic illness
• My goals for treatment
• How my doctor could help me achieve those goals

How to share with your doctor and keep the conversation going

Most healthcare providers use a patient portal to make communication easy. Before your next appointment, send a message saying, "I wanted to share some of my background with [your chronic illness] before we meet again. This should help guide our appointment and treatment plan." If you don't have access to a portal for messaging, call the receptionist and ask for the best way to share your information so the doctor can review it before your appointment.

When you visit your doctor, go over your résumé in person. Bring a notepad with any questions you want to ask — or have them written on your phone — and make sure you ask them before you leave. Ask your doctor how they prefer to be updated on your condition between appointments. And if you feel a little weird being assertive and putting yourself out there, just remember it will give you a head start to better health.

Ragen Chastain, who often writes about patient advocacy, wrote in her blog, "I started getting much better care when I decided that my healthcare was going to be a dialog between my healthcare providers and me, rather than thinking that I had no right to ask questions, challenge advice, or request that I be treated based on my values."

I believe that sharing my diabetes résumé and making a personal connection early on is the reason my doctor and I are still working together and my diabetes management has steadily improved.