3 ARMORED Battle Strategies
I received so many encouraging messages and positive feedback from releasing last week’s blog post about my upcoming book, ARMORED, that I’ve decided to release another book excerpt this week.
Highlights from ARMORED:
Care coaching allowed me to have a role in my husband’s recovery from three, major life-threatening illnesses in my own, nontraditional way. My definition of a care coach still encompasses the conventionally ascribed aspects of care including deep love, devotion, compassion, and respect.
However, care coaching also entails much more such as being an advocate, providing hope, reminding the patient of who they are and what they are fighting for, as well as being a strong supporter through the most challenging of times. Most of all, care coaching is about lovingly motivating the patient through their battles with unwavering faith.
Trust me, whether it’s a spouse, aging parent, or other loved ones, if you’re not in a battle now, there is likely one in the horizon. It’s best to organize yourself in advance.
ARMORED is more of a memoir rather than a manual.
In the early chapters of the book, I detail who my husband and I are as individuals and as partners to provide the context for the later chapters which define his health battles. At the conclusion of each chapter, I share strategies, insights, tactics, and advice from the lessons I learned. I then offer a care coach question for the reader to consider.
In the final chapters of the book, there is a summary of my top battle strategies which I’ve outlined throughout the book. However, I have provided three of the early preparatory ones here.
Three Early Strategies to Prepare for Life’s Battles:
Advanced Prep
Do you have an executed will with financial and medical powers of attorney listing you as the decision-maker?
Do you know all your patient’s usernames and passwords?
Do you also have knowledge of and access to all their financial accounts and records?
Organization
Do you know or have a system in place to capture your patient’s detailed medical history, medications, current symptoms, and issues if they can’t articulate this information for themselves?
Are you mentally and emotionally prepared to be a patient advocate on behalf of your patient, ready and willing to make all the life or death decisions?
No Regrets
Never part from your special person without sharing a kiss and saying, “I love you”, even if it means doing so many times per day. You don’t know when it might be the last time you hear those words or experience that embrace. Never take a single one for granted!
In Summary
My goal in telling our story is that you will be inspired, no matter your caregiving (or care coaching) background or skill set, and understand that we all have the power within us to encourage our loved ones through the darkest of times in life’s journeys. As a care coach equipped with only the armor of my unique past experiences, if I can motivate and support the person that I love most in the world through his major illnesses, then you can too.
For more details, please visit www.dawnflandry.com.
Bestselling Book: ARMORED is available now at www.amazon.com/author/dawnflandry
As always, thank you for your continued interest. Please let me know if I may ever be a resource to you and your endeavors by contacting me at dlandry@authentizity.com
