Do you prefer patient-focused or patient-centered medical care? What’s the difference?

t's stressful to wait for your doctor’s office to answer your calls or respond to your online messages. I wrote this handout to provide some clarification and to offer some tips on contacting your doctors between office visits. Hope it helps!

Managing loss is essential to healthy survivorship. The exercise of categorizing losses may help. Doing so may help you reflect on your response to a loss and see what more you can do—or what you can do differently.

Here’s a link to a 2-1/2-minute video in which I summarize my take on Healing Hope:
FocusOnOncology’s Dr. Wendy Harpham on Healing Hopes. Enjoy!

“I know this sounds crazy but all I want is a normal life.” Those were the words on my favorite refrigerator magnet decades ago during the years I was going in and out of cancer treatment. While understandable, my desire to go back to my old normal created problems.

In a 2 1/2-minute video, I get up close and personal to share my approach to finding hope when the prognosis is worrisome. You’ll see why a prognosis is not a prediction.

If you feel uncomfortable using the “survivor” label, you’re not alone. My recent dive into the history of survivorship helped me make sense of what might be going on and what to do.

Most of my writings on hope address patients’ thoughts or feelings about the future that can make it difficult to find hope. Thoughts or feelings about today (or yesterday) can make it difficult, too.

Checkups during treatment can be anxiety-provoking. Why celebrate, especially if you still have a long way to go? Cancer taught me that celebrating each step makes all the sense in the world.

The second time around, you experience things differently than the first time. Whether we’re talking about hearing a piece of music, watching a movie, reading an article or book, tasting an entree at a restaurant, falling in love, or whatever, you get something different out of it. That’s not good or bad. It just is.

Every little bit helps when dealing with illness. That’s why it’s worth learning about

I hoard inspiring words. My favorites are from ordinary people who’ve overcome adversity. Included in my pandemic stash are phrases from Clay Boatright.

Your doctors seem ready to conclude the visit, but you didn’t understand something or you still have questions. What’s a Healthy Survivor to do?

“I didn’t want to take any more of my doctor’s time.” That explains why many patients let their call or visit end without asking their doctors all their questions. That’s why they don’t tell their doctors they didn’t understand something and needed it repeated or explained in a different way.

Hours after leaving a message at your doctor’s office, your doctor calls back. The conversation is over before you know it, and you didn’t mention something important, ask one of your questions, or catch all the doctor’s advice.

What’s a Healthy Survivor to do when friends and family are unavailable to provide support? Since the start of the pandemic, social media has been gushing posts on self-care. For example,

During a pandemic, the rumble of normal-life stress crescendos to a roar. That creates a dilemma for people in need who fear burdening friends and loved ones with requests for assistance. What’s a Healthy Survivor to do?