"Best Patient Ever" How to navigate your healthcare in a paper gown and booties and make it look good!

By Patrice Ardiere

While we all face health issues in our lives. We don't have to face them without humor or optimism. You can take your power with you into every medical moment. If you do you just might find that not only does it have a great healing influence, but can also lift you to achieve what some consider impossible. You are already all you need to be. My book is dedicated to you, and everyone you know, and everyone they know, and everyone who loves everyone who will find themselves in a paper gown and booties; and I believe in all of you to make it look good!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patrice Ardiere
• Release date: Sep 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463239834

Patrice Ardiere

From infancy, it seemed as though Pat’s frequent travels through health care were inevitable.Pediatric Ophthalmology specialists determined that she was going blind and would lose her sight completely by 16 years of age. (She didn’t.)Many childhood illnesses plagued her causing her to repeat First Grade, and some feared that she would never be able to enjoy school like other young children. (She did.)Managing school with a weak immune system and failing vision wasn’t easy. (She found a way.)In her early teens, she began writing and sharing her life experiences and quirky sense of humor with others.In her twenties and thirties, Pat endured endometriosis, postpartum depression, PMS, PMDD, followed by more depression. Later, Asthma and a herniated L5 disk challenged her.“L5...” she would say, “is the designated driver for all future back problems.” (And it was.)In her late forties, chronic infections led to a diagnosis of CLL - Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (a non- Hodgkin’s Lymphoma), and so began a fourteen-year journey that involved four medical teams, repeat chemotherapy regimes, remissions, and relapses. Followed by a bone marrow transplant, and finally in January 2015, admission into a research study for CLL at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.Although there were many follow-ups, side-effects, and return visits, she has been cancer-free for five years.While Pat can’t predict if her health issues will return, she is certain of one thing. With her Best Patient Ever status and personal empowerment leading the charge, anything is possible.Her Life-long struggle to wellness has now become her passion and devotion to patients everywhere. She will always strive to inspire strength, empowerment, and hopefully, a few chuckles along the way.Pat has many more writing projects underway, both non-fiction and fiction. All focused on empowerment and whimsy. After all, life is nothing without a little whimsy! Writing is her passion. At least until she finds a market for those used exam gowns and booties. When that happens, she will probably be able to launch an empire!

Book preview

BEFORE HEALTH ISSUES:

YOUR BPE EVOLUTION

1

WE MUST ALL BE PREPARED

Few things in life are as intensely personal as health issues. While they impact everyone who knows and cares about you, it is still your journey, your experience, and your life. Please do all you can to secure it because you deserve nothing less.

Be driven, devoted, and tireless before things occur that challenge you. Persevere with that effort as you would for those you love. In short, get ready now so that if you need to be the Best Patient Ever, you will be. We must all be prepared before we need to be.

Have a Plan

We all know that planning can make a difference in most things. I certainly failed to plan many years ago when what seemed like a minor health issue gave way to a cancer diagnosis. I found myself seeing doctor after doctor and considering invasive tests and procedures needed to save my life. I knew I could have done more before getting sick, but I stalled and ignored symptoms and let fear of the unknown drive me.

The concept of planning to keep problems from becoming bigger has always been around us. Students practice fire and emergency drills in school so that they are ready for the unexpected warning bell. These drills ingrain in them what steps to take automatically so that in high-stress situations, they don’t have to think as much. They just have to take each step in the order they practiced them.

Now we plan for everything, be that a flood, a fire, a burglar in your house, or some other unforeseen and scary occurrence. We are encouraged to make a plan, write it out and practice it until those life-saving actions become our second nature.

Facing unforeseen medical situations should be no different. New scary situations can bring many emotional responses at once leaving you overcome with emotion, or frozen in fear, or rushing in all the wrong directions. You might just want to sit there in denial and refuse to act.

While under stress, a well-practiced plan will help you to focus and find comfort in the strategies you have already embraced. Planning will also provide options and can increase your chances of survival or bolster you and those you love, empowering them to support you as you wish to be supported. Nothing is more important.

What I know for sure: Planning and getting prepared when things are calm and there is no urgency to those decisions gives you more power should problems occur. I call it the seat-belt rule. You forget you’re wearing one when nothing goes wrong, but are glad it’s there when you need it.

Build Your Medical Team

Do you have a medical team? Or just many doctors who provide numerous services? I believe in building a powerful medical team of regular doctors so that you have a solid foundation of people who can advise you if you need to see specialists.

These are the medical people that you see in your day to day life such as your general practitioner, dermatologist, dentist, or ophthalmologist, and they can be the key to your long-term wellness. A quality physician can spot a brewing issue before it is apparent to you. They don’t need to diagnose you or have a name for what seems wrong, but their ability to spot a potential problem and encourage you to see the right specialist could mean everything.

So, what makes a good medical team?

You will have to decide that for yourself. In my world, a good team will communicate with you and each other; they always work together. A team will support you in all ways as you address your day to day health issues. There are amazing people working in medicine. They are tireless, dedicated people who want nothing more than to help you.

If you have no medical team or don’t feel that the doctors, nurses, assistants and support staff you have now would be your best option if facing serious circumstances, consider replacing them. The point of a good team is to support you and do for you what you are unable to do yourself. You have to trust and believe in them. Doubting those people is a hard way to face health challenges.

However, before you walk away from a doctor or facility, you must make some choices. While I believe in walking away from poor care, I never believe the alternative is having no care.

You must replace what is not working for you with what will.

Don’t be afraid to shop around and interview as your insurance will allow. Talking to doctors and thinking about building your team before you need them will allow you a stress-free time to choose. If you change your mind, change your team. However, you do need to have one. So, shop ‘til you drop!

Shopping Is Shopping Is Shopping

Remember that new gadget you had to have? How many articles did you read before choosing that super, high profile cell phone? Or those shoes you just had to have that matched that special outfit? Or, a new tie to complement your new suit? No matter what we want to invest in when our passion is involved, we are unstoppable in our quest to find that perfect thing; whether it’s a car, clothes, or even the right school for our kids, we make it happen.

I know that shopping for the right doctors and facilities for an unknown future is not the same thing. I’m not pretending it is! However, I will say that it can be a great relief insomuch as you will feel in charge, in control, and powerful in all the ways a health