medical decision making – The AdvoConnection Directory of Private, Independent, Professional Patient Advocates

Cancer and COVID-19: A Guide

With thanks to advocate and guest blogger, Claire Thevenot.
Find Claire’s advocacy profile here: Clarity Patient Advocates

“COVID cancer sucks,” my client said.

She discovered a cancerous lump in her breast a couple of weeks ago and has had to go through the many initial appointments amid the chaos, isolation, and uncertainty of COVID-19. As if a cancer diagnosis isn’t daunting enough, dealing with cancer in a pandemic setting is especially frightening and challenging. If you’ve received ...

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27
MAY

diagnosis and misdiagnosis, doctor communication, health care and cost management, medical decision making, working with advocates and care managers

cancer

Prepare for the Hospital – A Checklist for Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted by: AdvoConnection

With thanks to advocate and guest blogger, Kim McIlnay.
Find Kim’s advocacy profile here: Together Patient Advocates, LLC

Under the best of circumstances, a hospital stay is stressful and uncomfortable. New challenges with the current COVID pandemic make this a time fraught with even more worry, uncertainty and isolation. But there are still many things you can do to prepare.

I’m hopeful that these brief tips can help you prepare now for an improved hospitalization ...

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21
APR

doctor communication, eldercare, family caregiving, health care and cost management, hospital care, medical decision making, patient communication, patient safety

An “Advance” New Year’s Resolution

Posted by: AdvoConnection

Happy 2020 to you, my “patient” readers. I wish you much good health and happiness and importantly, peace-of-mind in this new year.

OK – yes – it’s mid-January, so it might be a wee-bit late to be listing our resolutions for the year, but that doesn’t make this piece of advice any less important.

I want to share something with you that has brought ME some huge peace of mind. And I’m going to challenge you to find some peace-of-mind for yourself, ...

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17
JAN

family caregiving, medical decision making, patient communication

Cyberchondria – Are we Putting Too Much Faith in Dr. Google?

Posted by: AdvoConnection

You may be reading this post because you are curious about that term – “cyberchondria.”

It’s not hard to figure out what it means. It means hypochondriac-ism as a result of doing online searches. More precisely, the act of diagnosing ourselves by using the web, then upsetting ourselves through our findings. It’s when we decide a headache is really brain cancer, or low blood sugar is translated as Parkinsons, or forgetfulness becomes Alzheimers.

The word “cyberchondria” has been around for 20 years ...

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20
NOV

diagnosis and misdiagnosis, doctor communication, medical decision making, patient communication

differential diagnosis

When Your Provider Says, “It’s All in Your Head”

Posted by: AdvoConnection

In a recent conversation with Annette, a young woman who has MS (multiple sclerosis), she described to me the first time she went for a drug infusion which had been prescribed by her neurologist.

She arrived for the session using her walker, barely able to keep her balance. Exhausted, she was finally able to get comfortable in the infusion chair. As the nurse began setting up the needle and catheter injection system into her vein, she looked at Annette and asked ...

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17
OCT

diagnosis and misdiagnosis, doctor communication, health care and cost management, medical decision making, working with advocates and care managers

The Surgical Assembly Line

Posted by: AdvoConnection

When I think of an assembly line, two images pop into my head:

The I Love Lucy Chocolate Factory episode where Lucy and Ethel are trying to wrap chocolates (and eat them too!) and can’t possibly keep up.
My high school history class, when we learned about Henry Ford’s invention of the concept of an assembly line, where hundreds of cars were being assembled in one day. It revolutionized manufacturing, helping companies produce much more than ever before.

I thought of both when ...

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19
AUG

doctor communication, follow the money, hospital care, medical decision making, patient communication, patient safety, working with advocates and care managers

surgery

Treat Your Human Body Like You Treat Your Car

Posted by: AdvoConnection

My friend Janet has a bad wound on her leg. It has been there for two months, and just looks worse and worse. Now it looks so bad she doesn’t even want to leave the house.

“What does your doctor say about it?” I asked her.

“I’ve been back to him five times!”, she responded. “He keeps giving me antibiotics, but it doesn’t seem to get any better.”

“Five times???” I asked her, incredulously.

It was time for “the talk” with Janet.

… the talk ...

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21
JUL

diagnosis and misdiagnosis, doctor communication, medical decision making, working with advocates and care managers

Busting the Cure Balloon and Finding a Workable Solution

Posted by: AdvoConnection

“The cure cannot come soon enough.”

As someone who works in healthcare, and who speaks to patients and their loved ones every day, this is a statement I hear frequently. Whether we’re talking about someone’s cancer diagnosis, or Alzheimer’s Disease, or ALS, or MS, or diabetes… it seems to be everyone’s hope – that a cure is on the horizon.

When my father was alive, and in his 24th year after his prostate cancer diagnosis, he lamented the fact that he had ...

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24
JUN

diagnosis and misdiagnosis, follow the money, health care and cost management, medical decision making

Ac-cen-tu-ate – the Negative?

Posted by: AdvoConnection

It’s time to take a trip with the Way-Back Machine to a song many of us heard when we were kids – because our parents played it on the radio or record player. We all sang along!

With lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and sung by Ella Fitzgerald (that’s Ella in the photo above), the song “Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive” became popular in the mid-1940s, with its very (yes) positive message of how we should focus our lives.. on ...

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30
MAY

diagnosis and misdiagnosis, doctor communication, follow the money, medical decision making, patient communication

“When I’m Sixty-Four” and If I’m Alone….

Posted by: AdvoConnection

Back in 2004, I was between husbands, and in my early 50s. As silly as that may sound (“between husbands”), the truth was, I spent 18 years with that status, between divorce and remarriage… and I was alone.

“Alone” is the key to today’s post.

Back in 2004, I was also diagnosed with a rare and terminal lymphoma. Yes – terminal – and yet here I am writing about it in 2019. You can read the story in ...

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25
MAR

eldercare, health care and cost management, medical decision making, patient communication, types of patient advocates, working with advocates and care managers

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