JustGotDiagnosed.com: Founded by Gary McClain -- Blogs

It seems like a major theme of the last few weeks, if not months, has for me been the importance of caregivers taking care of themselves.  I am involved in helping to take care of my mom, who over the past year has been in assisted living, as well as hospitalized at least twice, and in a rehab facility for two months.  This has been hard on her, and it has been hard on her children.  I thought I knew all about helplessnesss until I faced became reacquainted with the stress of helping someone you care about cope with their medical condition and join them in the adventure

I am writing a chapter for my book, After the Diagnosis, about helping newly-diagnosed patients to confront the fear factor.  And this week, I met with clients who were dealing with their own fears.  One is newly diagnosed with HIV, while another is dealing with cancer treatment.  Both progressed quickly from the initial news of their diagnosis to active treatment.  Talking with these clients really brought home to me how scary it is to suddenly learn that your life will never be the same in many ways, but in what ways?  One of the scariest things about a d

I am writing a supplemental textbook for nursing students titled After the Diagnosis: How Patients React and How to Help them Cope, to be published by Cengage/Delmar in 2010.  (This is something I have been dreaming about for a long time, so Woo Hoo!!!)  The first chapter is focused on delivering the diagnosis to the patient.  While writing it, I thought about just how critical it is that the diagnosis be delivered with an understanding of, and sensitivity, the emotions of the person receiving the diagnosis.  So often, the stories I hear don't give me a lot of c

In the March issue of Ode Magazine, David Servan-Schreiber, a French psychiatry professor, writes about facing a medical diagnosis with hope. He emphasizes the the importance of controlling stress, and how research has shown that facing illness with a calm and hopeful attitude can greatly increase survival. In my experience, dealing with stress begins with acknowledging emotions, even the scary ones like fear and anger -- feeling the feelings -- so that you can move beyond them. Feelings don't go away, and they don't have to control you.

Recently, an article on patient decision-making appeared in the New York Times. The article discussed how physicians may not be presenting newly-diagnosed patients with all of their treatment options, especially alternatives that might require that they leave their current physician. I have long been concerned, for example, that newly-diagnosed cancer patients may stay with an oncologist who treats multiple types of cancer rather than going to one who specializes in their specific diagnosis, or to a cancer treatment center that might provide care by a team of leading experts.

Human beings attach themselves to the illusion of control!

Friends and family getting on your nerves with their constant advice?

Let’s focus moment on the irony of being faced with the news of a condition that you don’t know anything about, yet are being expected to make decisions about. You might be wondering: Why not simply take my doctor’s advice?

When a child has a chronic condition, the whole family has a chronic condition. Other family members are often faced with making their own lifestyle adjustments – diet restrictions, limits on family vacations and other cost-cutting, and coping with looks and insensitive comments from others. It is important for family members to all acknowledge the ‘elephant in the room,’ which is their own sense of helplessness that can result when a family member is ill.

Society has taught us to look at the aging process as a series of losses and, ultimately, physical decline. But are we experiencing loss, or change?

When we define ourselves as diminished, we reduce ourselves to a set of biological process that requires the intervention of the medical establishment to maintain. It’s as simple as that. This is the end product of taking stock of our lives and placing all of the checkmarks under the heading of “Deleted.”