What does skydiving imagery have to do with healthcare or living with a chronic condition?

For Dr. Payne, reclaiming his childhood dream of skydiving is a meaningful part of his personal story. But more than that, it’s a reminder that, as individuals and as a healthcare system, we’re all limited by the expectations that accompany “sick.” We can do so much more. And we can live so much better. Too often, illness becomes the reason we let go of our dreams — but with some effort, creativity, and support, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Skydiving is also a powerful metaphor for the challenges of chronic illness and caregiving because living with (and caring for) serious illness, day in and day out, is overwhelming and exhausting (like being flung out of a perfectly good airplane). But skydiving is the ultimate act finding your agency against long odds and choosing life for yourself.

Most important, skydiving is a direct, functional analogue to living with sickness and caring for others — highlighting what we often overlook in those everyday experiences. Living with (and caring for) serious illness may be normal, but it is far from ordinary. We forget that it is momentous, difficult, and draining. Our bodies and brains only have one set of tools to deal with all of life’s challenges — the obvious, flashy ones like falling at terminal velocity, and the quiet, common ones like facing another day making a meaningful life in the face of devastating illness and its consequences.

This experience also led Dr. Payne to sport psychology as another surprising source of insight for our practice. Why? Because elite, endurance, and extreme athletes voluntarily court “edge” experiences (and succeed). Chronic illness and a lifetime of giving care are also edge experiences — and emotionally and physiologically, an edge is an edge.

There’s a lot more to it than this, but you get the idea!