Patient Responsibilities

Patient Responsibilities © ARC 8/13/08

You may be down, but you’re not out of `it’ until you choose to be.

Alas, if your illness is severe,
and/or you’re suffering from a horrible accident or trauma,
you may be subconsciously rebelling or `giving up’
without you consciously knowing it.

In the meantime, loved ones and medical personnel
are probably `working’ 24/7
to help you gain some measure of recovery in a progressive helpful way.

Do you want it?
If you do, at some point you have said or will have to say:
I desire to `begin again’ -
I desire the rest of my life to be better -
I desire to live.
At that point, expect miracle of God’s grace to help you.

Read Norman Cousins; watch Randy Pausch.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Rapidly-Dying-Professors-Last-Lecture

Now what can you do
to help yourself, medical personnel, loved ones, caretakers?

If you are on Medicare Disability,
most states provide:
IHSS - In Home Supportive Services - your Doctor authorizes -
visiting nurses, caretakers are available -
this is imperative to investigate -
give temporary relief to family, friends who are helping.

So much healing is psychological -
as the mind thinketh, the body will follow.
The best `thinking’ is believing, feeling, that you are getting better.

Émile Coué,
French psychologist and pharmacist
introduced a method of psychotherapy, ...
his studies demonstrated `patients’
who thought they were getting better did…
he instructed his patients to say:
day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better…they did!

So, consider your day to day a `dress rehearsal’…
pain may be constant, stress may be constant…
but you are going to `super impose’ positive thinking, feeling, acting over it.

Set up your day to the `tune’ of marching music:
upbeat, precision, disciplined.
Wake up immediately thanking God for life, family, recovery, universal kinship.

Take whatever medication is prescribed for the day;
then go outside with coffee.
Soak in God’s nature -
tune in with prayer to the collective unconscious -
calling on archangels, angels, saints, holy souls for aide -
praying for self, loved ones, neighbor.

If possible, force yourself to take a short prayer walk.

Imperative that you now bathe (shower or tub) or sponge -
put on clothes.
Pajamas and bathrobes subconsciously reinforce illness.
Clothes say: action/healing.

Eat breakfast…your `mind’ is re-training itself…
small amounts in small dishes.
Eat this way on the hour…re-building strength…
this is the time to treat yourself with the childhood foods you loved -
suggestions: eggs, meatloaf/meatballs in sauce, macaroni & cheese,
tenderized beef/pork/chicken stir-fry & BBQ, fruit and sweets et al.

Invest in and/or if fortunate and loved ones want to give a gift -
ask for on-line Blockbuster movies - when the mind is engaged,
it is amazing how it superimposes pain.

After lunch, take a short prayer walk,
then nap on couch - not bed.
Wake up, take another shower, bath, or sponge bath -
start day again like a.m. - psychologically it is so uplifting.

If family/friends come to visit,
try to engage with conversation, playing cards, scrabble.
It is hard on them.
Be a positive patient - as they are caring/sharing -
you care/share too.

Personalities are like the seasons:
spring, summer, fall, winter.
Stay in spring for yourself, family, friends, health care -
you will enhance your life/theirs.

Learn to crochet - so easy, fun, and again engages the mind -
feeling constructive.
You can get rental video at library
http://www.knittingkorner.com/ -
library on-line reserve treasures -
joke books, funny movies - uplift, renew with greats:
Dickens, Buck, Steinbeck, Hugo, Maughan…
ask visitors to read too.

You are constant in my prayers.
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