Skip to main content

Does Your Hospital Have a Navigator?

Until my cancer diagnosis, I’d never heard of hospital Navigators. But now that I have, I think EVERY hospital should have navigators on staff.

I’d like to introduce you to Felicia, my own Navigator. 

Felicia went to most of my doctor’s appointments with me – all year – and took notes. At first, I thought the notes were for her records or for the doctor’s, but after each visit, she handed me the note paper for my own records. She visited me during each treatment. She called me every week between treatments to check on me, offer encouragement, made note of any side effects and advised me if I needed to alert the doc’s office (like with the blood clots from my nose). She answered any questions I had along the way. She helped me navigate through the maze of all things medical – which hospital/clinic/facility I needed to be for which test/procedure, etc. (Rome has three major hospitals, but they offer different procedures, equipment, or doctors for the cancer journey. And during the time of my journey, all of the hospitals were undergoing major transitions of ownership, branding, and/or computer systems so that was a journey in itself.)

I’m not sure how I would have made it through last year without Felicia’s presence. Her role was crucial in my well-being.

Do you know if your hospital has a Navigator? You should ask, and if they don’t, perhaps suggest that they consider adding a Navigator or two to their staff.


 








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Photo Shoot for a Cause

Last month, Advent Health honored me by asking if I would be one of their "faces" during their "Pink Porch" campaign for Breast Awareness Month. They arranged for a photo shoot and an interview, and said I could invite anyone I wanted to be in the photos with me.  Without hesitation, I suggested Jess Bolton, my daughter-in-law, and Felicia Trawick, my nurse navigator-turned-friend. These two were with me every day of my cancer journey, either in person or by phone. God knew what I needed during that time because Jess and Felicia kept me laughing, and we're still at it, as you can tell from the photos below. The lovely and patient photographer, Emily Long, had us talk to each other, and to look at each other, and we just got silly. (Please note: these photos are the only time you'll see me NOT talking with my hands! Such a surprise to all of us!) It was a windy but fun day, and Zach, my son and Jess's husband, surprised and blessed me by coming, too.  Dur...

Our Home Health Care Experience

Blogging got away from me this summer. At the end of July, I got sick with what the doc eventually said was either the flu or covid, but it was too late to test by that time. Then Tim got sick and ended up in the hospital for a week with covid and double pneumonia. He’s home now and recovering well - I’m grateful and he’s happy to be home again. I decided to share our experience with home health care. Since all of this was new to us, I don’t know if our experience is the norm, but thought I’d share in case it’s all new to someone else. The hospital filled up while Tim was there, so once they got him on his feet without oxygen, they sent us home because they needed the bed. But they ordered Home Health Care, saying he needed physical therapy, and that’s what we expected. Tim left the hospital on the 19th. To simply things, I’ll list the dates and duties of Home Health below (we also had 3 doc appts scattered in the middle of all these dates, and perhaps only introverts and hermits like ...

Guest Post: No Time to Sit and Worry by V. Ronnie Laughlin

Earlier this year, TMP Books put out a call for submissions for two anthologies, requesting stories from cancer warriors/survivors, and from cancer caregivers. We received several submissions, but not enough to fill either book, so for now, the books are postponed. When I notified the writers who had submitted, one of them suggested running the stories on my blog, and I loved the idea. My goal was to share people’s stories, to give encouragement and hope to other cancer warriors and caregivers, so why wait? I’m sharing the stories each Tuesday, in the order they were submitted. Today, I welcome author V. Ronnie Laughlin who shares her atypical breast cancer journey from the Middle East, during the pandemic. No Time to Sit and Worry As I held the specimen cup in my hand with the breast biopsy sample glistening inside; I looked at it and it looked at me. It looked like a hydra, the long tentacled invertebrate with a gelatinous body. I do not know what possessed me to ask my Radiologist,...