Advocacy in Your Plight

If you are someone with a serious medical issue, first of all know that God is always with you.  This is a recurring promise through out the Bible.  Here is a list of 13 or so verses about that.  If you are a saved Christian, you have access to God, via prayer 24x7 with whatever you want to bring to Him...and you should bring whatever is on your mind to Him, at whatever hour.  Yes, that includes frustrations with anything (including God).   He is big enough to take it and minister to you about your issue.   Fair Warning...when you take an introspective look at things, most of the time you are going to find that the self is smack in the middle of frustrations and trust in God is somehow out on the fringe.  :-)

At any rate, I also wanted to talk about advocacy by another human being while visiting doctors and enduring treatments and procedures.  Kelly and I were advised by several people who have been care takers and advocates for their husbands while they battled cancer to do the same as we entered into this journey.  Let me be very clear, it is CRITICAL to find someone who will be this for you.   I am in an unusually strong state as of writing this on 3/16/17, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and still need Kelly to be there, which she always has been.  With God a strand of 3 (God, you, and your care taker) is going to be much stronger than any 1 person alone could ever be.  God has blessed Kelly and I with faith and a desire to win for His glory.  Yes, I have my ups and downs, and so does Kelly.  But in the end, we are in it and plan to win it, regardless of the results pending because of our faith.

What does a caretaker / advocate do:

1. Be there for the patient.   Kelly has done this in spades in spite of my being impatient, cranky, and generally speaking a giant P.I.T.A. for her.
2. Capture all records, reports, and CDs from all doctors.   While they keep files getting them to successfully transmit files is nothing short of a logistics nightmare.
3. Follow up...the medical industry uses a FAX system to send things from one office to another.  It is archaic yet, cumbersome due to HIPPA rules and being technically absurd in 2017.  Follow up means that someone will have to find the person that is supposed to send a file, verify that they have sent it and have confirmation of it being sent, track down the clerk at the recipient's office and verify that they can find it, and have passed it on to the actual recipient.  A follow up call to make sure that the doc/nurse on the other end has looked at it prior to the next appointment is also important.  The reason is that our federal government has made health care a very tough business and there have been cut backs.  Cut backs have caused time to be at a premium at any facility, so doing your due  diligence will put you ahead.  Waiting on the other hand will leave you in the dust waiting exponentially longer.  Kelly got me from we think we have an issue at doc in the box to the OR table in 3 weeks because of her diligence.  We are now in a pathology 1st / 2nd opinion waiting game.   I am thankful that we are hear now, instead of not getting to it until much later.
4. Do not accept passive answers from doctors.  Fight!  There are physicians who are ultra risk averse and will check up with absolutes and not offer options.  Always ask for options.  If there are none offered, find a 2nd opinion.
5. Monitor the patient in the hospital and be their advocate.  Get a nurses attention.  Nurse staffing especially, is low.  They are under paid for what they do, they work long hours, and the politely "squeaky wheel gets the greasin'" when in the hospital.  We were blessed with great nursing at Chesapeake Regional Hospital and made a point to tell them that in person and in surveys.  I was never left wanting for anything.  In cases where care is bad, the advocate should be willing to go to the charge nurse and get whatever is needed.  Just remember that persistent but polite, wins in the long run.
6. Monitor the diet, activity, and physical and mental health of the patient.  I for one do not like to take drugs.  If there is no pain I get up and move.  If there is pain I stay put.  Manageable pain is there for a reason with people like me.  So, plenty of pain meds can cause me to artificially feel good and consequently have problems due to activity too soon.
7. Make the patient do what the doctor says.  It is very easy to not feel like doing doctor's orders, which is ultimately at the expense of the patient's health.

#Isaiah40:31