I first learned Brenda Snow’s incredible work when I found her book, Diagnosed: The main guide to navigating the patient’s journey. Over the years, I have had to deal with several health challenges in my life, including asthma, chronic pneumonia, bipolar disorder, as well as some rather exotic diseases that influenced my kidneys (glomerulonephritis) and adrenal. I am now a full -time caregiver to my wife, Carlin. I know I’m not alone. No one takes life without being weak and/or carer.
Brenda Snow has pioneered patients’ involvement for the Life Science Industry with its snow companies, which she founded and, until recently, leads as her CEO. Brenda’s leadership is based on her own experience as a patient with multiple sclerosis and her ability to share her story with millions of women and men who had to deal with a frightening diagnosis.
“Here’s the first thing I want to understand,” Brenda tells us, “You’re not alone.”
I had the good luck to interview Brenda in my podcast. You can watch the full interview here. Brenda listening not only reminds us that we are not alone, but that we have a care guide that understands what we are going through and can help us survive and thrive.
“If you have hit a scary diagnosis,” says Brenda, “you may feel alienated from the life you lived, you feel strangers to the person you had, isolated, lonely and scary.”
After thirty years of life with chronic illness and twenty -five years working with thousands of people managing a chronic or terminal disease, Brenda Snow is a power to live a full life as a patient, as well as the skills and courage needed to be a favorite partner.
“I have seen this treatment trip several times I recognize its stages,” Brenda explains: “Yes, there is a patient’s journey.
Recognizes that after phases and stages:
Phase I: Putting the fire
- Pre-diagnosis
- Diagnosis
- Affliction
- Thymus
- Acceptance
Phase 2: The rest of your life
- Resistance
- Optimize your relationships
- Optimize your care
- Reconstruction
- Conflict
Phase I: Putting the fire
“The first half of the patient’s journey is relatively linear,” says Brenda. “Phase 1 includes the early, acute part of your journey: You have to do with the most weakening symptoms of your body and get the fire. Phase 1 is brutal, but – if you can pass through beyond the. “
Pre-diagnosis
“At the stage before diagnosis. Something strange is happening in your body and you don’t know what,” Brenda says. “Your behavior may be characterized by a mixture of denial and frantic googling attempts for self -diagnosis.”
Diagnosis
“The diagnosis stage brings both relief and sadness,” Brenda says. ‘Relief, because you finally have one name For what is happening in your body. Sadness, because – What the hell – You can’t believe this will be your life now. ”
Affliction
Sadness comes when it begins to become real, when you realize that this is not going to go away.
“These are ugly, painful moments that confirm:” Yes, I really have this, that’s part of my life now and I can’t make it go away, “Brenda explains.
Thymus
Anger and sadness often go together.
“Many people are angry about what their illness has taken from them,” says Brenda, “their health, their work, their physical appearance, their ability to run with their children or to love their partner.”
Acceptance
“Acceptance is difficult,” Brenda confirms. “I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna here.”
There is a lot that we cannot control for chronic illness.
‘But one thing you box Check: The glasses you put in to understand your reality and to determine the way you show. You can choose how you see the world. ”
Phase 2: The rest of your life
“Phase 2 is not linear,” Brenda explains, “because you will participate in each of these last stages for the rest of your life.
Phase 1 must be dealt with first.
“You won’t have the energy you need for any of these latest stages,” says Brenda, “until you turn the angle of acceptance.”
Resistance
‘We will need endure Your illness on a regular basis, “says Brenda,” because once you think you are cracked the nut, you will realize that there are some new shit to understand. From all the stages of the patient’s journey, this is the one that lasts. ”
Optimize your relationships
“The patient’s journey is motivating deep changes to patients, care workers and everyone has touched the disease,” Brenda says. “Causes to evolve relationships. Everyone must learn new roles and new ways of engaging each other.”
Optimize your care
‘You will need to maintain the minority, reconstruction and re -examination of the design to start the scenario with the best cases as you move to different times of life and as your illness is potentially changing or the new treatment protocols are available, ”says Brenda.
Reconstruction
“Reconstruction is about architectural entertainment and regularity back to your life,” says Brenda. “Life is too short to be serious all the time, and this is a truth you now know with more certainty than you ever have before,” Brenda announces. “Surround yourself with people who” take it “, who make you laugh.”
Conflict
“And now, patients start asking:” What am I going to do with it? How will I give back and leave the world a better place? “Then you get to your journey stage,” says Brenda. “As a patient, you recently recalled and brutal that we will all die one day. This universal truth now has personal immediacy to you.”
Women and men as patients and carers
Although we will all die one day and we will all become patients and/or carers at some point in our lives, women and men often face different challenges. Women are more often careful and men often treat life -threatening illnesses, although our greatest resistance to professional assistance often keeps men in denial.
According to Dr. Will Courtenay, the author of Dying to become men,
“Although traditional men are socialized to be providers and patrons of others, they tend to be poor guardians of their health. Men in the United States have greater socio -economic advantages than women, but despite these benefits men – on average – are greater than women.
As someone who has spent his professional career as a therapist working with men and his families, I have experienced these gender differences in the last sixty years.
‘For almost all 15 main causes of death [except Alzheimer’s]Men and boys have higher mortality rates adapted to age than women and girls, “says Dr. Courtenay.” These top 15 killers represent more than 80% of all deaths in the United States. “ [Based on statistics gathered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.]
One of my goals in my life was to help men live completely healthy lives, so we don’t have to die before our time. Along the way I learned to become a better caregiver for myself, my children, my parents and my wife.
Both my wife and I are now in our 80s. In addition to the diagnosed diseases we had, we must also face the realities of being old. We are married for forty -five years and we have six children, seventeen grandchildren and two grandchildren. The experience and expertise of Brenda Snow helped us browse our journey to the patient as well as our journey to caregiver. However, we have even more life to live more lessons to learn.
If you want to know more about Brenda Snow and her work, You can do it here.
To see the interview and discussion we had together, You can do it here.
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