This past week the concept of being a survivor has been coming up. First in a well-informed article on Heart Sisters and then in an extensive conversation with someone I work with who spoke about how almost all of us are survivors of one challenge or another. Heart of Well Being grew out of my desire to work with people to enable them to transform being a survivor to to being a thriver. What does it mean to you to flourish and thrive?
Survivorship is an idea which the cancer community has embraced. What can we learn from the survivor model outlined for cancer patients? Here are the phases:
- Acute Survivorship – begins at the moment of diagnosis and extends through treatment.
- Transitional Survivorship – initial phase of diagnosis and treatment has ended, transition back to “normal” or a “new normal.”
- Extended Survivorship – disease-free following treatment and those who are living with varying risks for recurrence find themselves in this stage.
- Chronic Survivorship –. For chronic survivors, day-to-day life may have many normal aspects, but the fear of recurrence or disease progression is often an ever-present concern.
- Permanent Survivorship –
Some are cancer-free and free of cancer while others are cancer-free but not free of cancer – experiencing physical, medical, emotional, financial or spiritual “fallout”.
I think there is a way the model can be tweaked and individualized. How do you see it being applied to cardiac patients? There are more broad applications for life challenges as well – loss of a job, parenting a non-neurotypical child, any serious medical diagnosis. The anxiety and isolation can be acknowledged and transformed so that you can live fully.
To take advantage of the opportunities in the midst of the challenge and move from survivor to thriver, contact me.
Dina 203 744.YOU3 (9683)
