Hello and welcome to The Own Your Health podcast,
I'm Cyndi Lynne, and I can't wait to
help you step into your health power.
So this week we're talking about not going it alone.
We talk so much about our ability to be independent and our
ability to own our own health, but there are times when we
simply don't want to or need to go it alone.
And as always, this conversation comes from a conversation
that I had with a client of mine this
week who's facing some medical decisions, some potential surgery.
And it was a great conversation that we had, and I
really thought I'd bring it back and share it with you
because I think a lot of us feel the same way.
I've talked in the past about getting help, about having a
second set of years for appointments, and I've gotten a lot
of pushback, pushback in the form of I'm a very private
person, or my family is not good with medical things, or
I really don't know if I want anyone else knowing about
what's going on with my health.
And that's all real legit.
But there are times, very specifically a couple of
times, where not only is it okay to ask
for help, but it's a really good idea.
So let's talk about those times.
If there is an appointment coming up, if you
have a meeting with a healthcare provider and you
expect there to be a lot of new information,
test results, or even a diagnosis, that's a really
good time to have someone else around.
The other time is if you're talking about interventions, if
there's going to be surgery, if there's going to be
other types of procedures that you need to prepare for
and then ultimately recover from, that's another really good time
to have that second set of eyes and ears.
So what is this person's role?
If we are private, if we don't want someone else
making decisions for us, how do we pick someone?
And what is the role that this second person plays?
Well, first of all, they are, as I
mentioned before, a second set of ears.
We know, and we've talked about the fact that
when we're getting stressful information, even before we get
the information, when we're headed to an appointment where
we anticipate there might be news that we're not
real happy about, we're worried, we're stressed;
we simply cannot take in, process
or remember a lot of information.
That's where that second set of
ears and eyes comes along.
Not only does this person listen with you, but
they're in a great position to just sit and
take notes, to simply write things down.
The second role of this helper individual
that we'll choose is to make sure
that all of your questions get answered.
And by this, I'm assuming that you're
taking a list in with you. And if you want,
if you want more information about that list that
you take to your doctor's office, absolutely reach out
I'd be willing to do an episode just on that. But
ahead of time, you're going to have a list of questions
that you need answers and you're going to create this
list when you're of clear mind and you're not
in a stressed situation, then you take this list
with you and you can either give it to
your helper or you can hang on to it.
Your helper can take notes just to make
sure that all of the questions that you
thought about in a less stressed time with
a clear mind that you actually get answered now.
Doctor's appointments happen quickly.
They come in, they want to
impart a great deal of information.
They'll ask, do you have any questions?
But in that moment, it's very
difficult to come up with them.
Your brain may actually be
three pieces of information back.
So making sure there's another individual there saying,
you know, there's a couple more questions here.
Do you want to ask these?
Now, this person doesn't have to speak at all.
They simply have to listen and write.
If you want someone to help
advocate for you, that's okay.
You're just going to work with them ahead of time
and talk to them and say, okay, if this happens,
I would like you to step up and do this.
Or if I get to the point where I
can't ask any more questions, then you go ahead
and ask the remaining questions on our list.
And that's why it's important to choose someone knowing
what these roles are, to choose someone who you
know can perform these three very important functions.
So how do you pick a person like this?
First of all, it's not always a matter of how
close someone is to you, because very often very close
family members have a hard time being objective.
They may be sitting next to you as stressed, if
not more so, depending on the person, as you are.
So they may not be in the clearest
mind to listen, to take notes, and to
help remind you of questions that you had.
This is where it's very often very common to take
a close friend, someone that you can trust, someone that
respects your privacy enough to acknowledge that you are the
one who will decide who and when, when and who
people get information about any of your medical history or
goings on, and you need someone you can really trust
who's going to show up that day, who you can
depend on, and who's going to be there.
So choosing that person can be a little
bit tricky because you don't want to exclude
people, you don't want to hurt people's feelings.
But part of owning our health is having
these boundaries around what we expect, around what
we ask of others, and really truly understanding
what we need to get our needs met.
So at the same time, I say you don't
have to, and you probably shouldn't go it alone
when it comes to these circumstances, you absolutely want
to maintain your health ownership and your boundaries.
If you're finding it difficult in thinking ahead of
time about who such a person would be, it's
probably worth giving it a little consideration.
It's nice to know we have these people in
our lives before the circumstances actually come up.
It's also good to have potentially
other outside help, help from professionals.
And in fact, health advocacy is something that I do.
If you want someone to attend a meeting
with you, an appointment with you virtually or
even in person, I'm available to do that.
And that's a service that
people are always surprised about.
They're always surprised that that's something that
you can actually ask someone to do.
And it's something that I do happily for my clients.
Act as their health advocate, act as their second
set of ears, their second set of eyes.
Help them come up with the questions and then
make sure all of the questions get answered.
So if you don't have someone in your
life, or if you'd like help choosing someone
in your life, then reach out.
Go ahead, grab the link, book a call.
We can do a quick 15 minutes
to see what your next steps are.
So it is my sincerest wish that you never have
an appointment with unexpected or unhappy information, that you never
have a diagnosis you have to live with, and that
you never need that second set of years.
But owning your own health means
being prepared and doing that reach out.
Ask for help. Talk to people.
Find out if they're willing to do this
for you should the circumstances arise and you'll
feel a whole lot better for it.
It will take a lot of
stress out of this whole situation.
So if you found this helpful,
absolutely
share, rate, I love to hear your feedback.
I'd love to get good ratings, especially.
It does help the podcast.
And by all means, reach out.
If you want to know what your next steps are.
So until next week, let's go out and own it.
