Care to Care: It just got personal
Watch the corresponding Care to Care episode here.
Life is a journey filled with twists and turns, and at the heart of this journey are the inevitable changes in our roles. From the very beginning each of us holds multiple roles– child, sister, brother, cousin– the list goes on. As we grow, our roles shift and change. Reflecting on the roles we each play, I was recently struck by something. So many of the roles we play are in relation to another role; they are two sides of a coin. There is parent/child, teacher/student, doctor/patient to list a few. In some ways it is as if these roles do not exist one without the other. And yet, there are times it seems the gap between these roles is endless. Many of us might even have experience in both roles on either side of a given coin. Even so, when you are the parent it can be hard to take the perspective of the child, when you are the teacher it can be hard to take the perspective of the student, and when you are the doctor it can be hard to take the perspective of the patient.
Caregiver/care-recipient is another one of those amazing, perplexing, two-sides-of-the-same coin relationships. While many caregivers have been care recipients and vice versa, we can still get siloed in our roles. As a caregiver, it can be hard to take the perspective of the care-recipient and as the care-recipient it can be hard to take the perspective of the caregiver. Dr. Jackie and I have devoted ourselves to being on the team of the caregiver–being the support caregivers need to navigate this challenging role. With clinical expertise working with caregivers and care recipients, we were able to offer a unique perspective, supporting the caregiver while understanding the condition of the care recipient.
On October 27, 2023, our perspective got much more personal. I was diagnosed with breast cancer and found myself thrust into the role of care-recipient. Going from caregiver support expert to care-recipient has been a challenging and curious experience. Suddenly, caregiver and care-recipient really did feel like two sides of the same coin. While fighting breast cancer has been exhausting, I find myself motivated to glean lessons from the experience that can be useful to the caregivers Dr. Jackie and I work with. In this video series, Dr. Jackie and I come together, using real-life experiences from my own journey, to explore the caregiver/care-recipient relationship. We discuss communication challenges, competing priorities, emotional burden, and more from my own journey and leave caregivers with new insights and ideas that may help them on their journeys as well.