I am in my 40th year as a Girl Scout (now a troop leader). Girl Scouts is the largest organization for women, and a great way to get information out about Lipedema to future doctors, medical professionals, patients, and friends/family members of women who may someday experience Lipedema. Early treatment and conservative therapies will result in less long-term mobility issues and other medical conditions that result from untreated Lipedema.
Below is the LegsLikeMine Badge Program for Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors, following the GSUSA badge program format.
Complete All Activities.
What Girl Scouts Do:
Discover:
Lipedema affects up to 11% of women. As Girl Scouts, you are future doctors, medical professionals, scientists, and yes, even patients. Awareness of this disease could help you or your friends receive early treatment to prevent damage to your bodies!
- Learn what lipedema is, what triggers it, conservative and aggressive treatments, and what happens when left untreated. Some sources you may use are google, and reference the TotalLipedemaCare FaceBook or Instagram pages.
- Learn the difference between lipedema, lymphedema and metabolic obesity. The internet is a great source for this.
- Look up several pictures of women with lipedema. Learn about the types and stages of the disease.
- Learn about what symptoms present when someone has lipedema.
Connect:
- Visit with a physician or medical professional to gain understanding of their awareness of lipedema.
- You may want to bring information found on lipedema.org, such as their brochure to the meeting.
- Learn from a psychologist on recommendations for medical professionals who experience patients with lipedema; family and friends who may notice symptoms of lipedema in a loved one. Learn the best way to approach someone and when not to approach someone. Learn about the psychological impact of unsolicited home diagnosis of lipedema. Learn how you can help someone who doesn’t know about lipedema but may have it.
- Identify three conservative treatments for lipedema before, or in addition to surgical treatment.
- Besides a primary care doctor, identify other types of careers that could help women with Lipedema.
Take Action:
- Learn from a physician or medical professional about how you can advocate for you own healthcare, even if the medical professional isn’t familiar with your disease. What other diseases are uncommon, or incorrectly diagnosed that you might need to know about?
- Create a take action project to share awareness about lipedema, geared towards women in puberty, child bearing years, or menopausal years. Ideas could be posters, a website, blog, or youtube video. What other things could you do? Could you talk to your school counselor or put on a training session? Could you share the information with other Girl Scouts?
- Role play a scenario where you have a friend who displays the symptoms of Lipedema. Using the recommendations you learned above, how do you tell her, or do you tell her?
How They Do It:
- Girl Led
- Cooperative Learning
- Learning by Doing
Once you have completed the steps above, you may order a beautiful 3-inch round, LegsLikeMine badge here. Badges are $3.00 each and are round with the dark blue border, featuring the LegsLikeMine logo, below:
For input on the badge, please contact me!
Susan O’Hara, legslikemine@gmail.com
