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Going to Jail, Spinning Plates, Peace of Mind – and You
Suppose you are asleep one night, and the police break down your front door, yank you out of bed, arrest you, and take you off to jail…. What would you do? Who would you call? It doesn’t matter whether you are innocent or guilty – you have been blindsided by something unexpected, and now you have to deal with it by managing a system you know nothing about…. I suspect you would call a lawyer to help you through it – right? A lawyer is the person who can at least provide the peace of mind that knowledge of the system and a vested interest in YOUR outcomes provides. A personal health emergency, or being called to attend to a loved one in a health crisis, whether it’s a spouse, an elderly parent, a child – any loved one – when there is an emergency, or a dire diagnosis, or a “turn for the worse” – it is just like being led off to jail. No one plans for it, no one has room in their life for it, and very few people understand how to manage the system to get what they need from it. For patients, loved ones and caregivers – YOU, as a patient advocate, are the equivalent to the lawyer in the scenario above. YOU will be the one who provides the peace of mind that only the knowledge of the healthcare system and that vested interest provides. Last year at this time, and over the course of the next several months, I was running two businesses, writing my third book, traveling across the country to speak, consulting – but most importantly, I was the main caregiver for my father, flying back and forth between his home in Florida, and my home in NY. It was like spinning plates on sticks, praying none of those plates would fall, just to keep up with my usual craziness – and to make sure Dad had what he needed, too. Then, in September, I got the call that I needed to be there RIGHT THIS MINUTE – just a…