My name is Michael Bishop. I’m honored and very excited to be HF Healthcare’s new guest blogger. I’m a writer and illustrator from northwest Ohio, and I recently graduated from The University of Findlay with a degree in creative writing. During my college career I studied writing, illustration, photography, and worked as the managing editor of a nationally published literary journal. I also have severe Hemophilia B with an allergy and inhibitor to factor IX products. After I graduated from college, I began to take my passion for hemophilia advocacy more seriously. I have spoken at national conferences on what life is like for hemophiliacs with rare diagnoses, and published creative-nonfiction works about my experiences with hemophilia. Ultimately, I’m hoping to find creative ways to develop and continue a career in hemophilia advocacy and education.
I know firsthand how significantly education can affect a patient’s health and happiness, and this is particularly important for younger patients. With HF Healthcare, I’m currently working to develop a series of poems and illustrations for the education of children with hemophilia. These poems will act as simple explanations of medical terminology, reminders on what to do during the treatment of a bleed, and advice on how to cope and live happily with hemophilia. As a creative writer and artist, illustrated children’s books combine my two passions, and in my opinion, there is no better way to reach out and connect with children and engage them in education. This series will be easily sharable, hopefully memorable, and full of important lessons and information for any child with hemophilia. Along with these poems and illustrations, I will continue to post on this blog with information about maintaining a healthy and happy lifestyle for hemophiliacs of all ages.
In the future, I hope the hemophilia community continues to connect and educate each other. Contemporarily, technology has allowed people to make connections with one another and share experiences that have the potential to truly change lives. This is especially true with a group like the hemophilia community. We are large enough that we have the means to communicate with each other and share our unique experiences, learning and growing from our collective experience, but we’re small enough that every voice is important and needs to be heard. I’ve met so many creative hemophiliacs over the years and I love seeing how people can channel their creativity to express what their hemophilia means to them. The most powerful resource we have is education, and education comes from connection. I hope that this blog will act as a resource for information and advice, and also start a dialogue of health and happiness within the hemophilia community. I’m very excited to engage with readers and work on creating something special.
Thank you to HF Healthcare for allowing me to blog with them!
(To read Michael’s blog posts, click here.)
