People who live with long term, complex chronic illness suffer from extreme stress and trauma together and alone. ‘Live with’ meaning they're my diagnoses or I'm caring for someone with those challenges. 'Caring for someone' can be professionals or family and non-family, and sometimes community. The intensity of acute crises, rehabilitation, and maintenance (living life) all cause unforgettable and deep-rooted stress. Crazy-making stress.  Illness-induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). To explore PTSD, I asked Nancy Michaels to join us. She spent 6-months in the ICU, two-months in a coma, with a liver transplant and brain surgery to boot. She most remembers dignity and control or lack thereof. It affected more than her. Listen in.

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Episode Notes

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Contents with Time-Stamped Headings
to listen where you want to listen or read where you want to read (heading. time on podcast xx:xx. page # on the transcript)

Introducing Nancy Michaels 00:51. 1

Health is fragile 04:36. 2

Illness-induced PTSD 07:39. 3

Giving yourself the label of PTSD 13:57. 4

Seeking treatment for PTSD 19:35. 5

Can caregivers get PTSD? 27:12. 6

No harder job than ICU work 30:35. 7

Managing the stress you can 34:19. 8

Control when you’re really sick 37:02. 8

Reflections 42:47. 10
Links
Nancy Michaels' website

What medicine can learn from pediatrics: A mother's perspective

Nancy Michaels: Patient Speak

Nancy Michaels: Stripped: 49 Life Lessons Learned from Dying

Nancy Michaels: PTSD-A Patient's Perspective 8/4: to be published in EC Emergency Medicine & Critical Care in the next few weeks.

Illness-induced PTSD is common, understudied

Pat Mastor's Patient View Partners

Family Caregiver Alliance: When PTSD Moved In

Cancer.net: PTSD and Cancer

Women's Alzheimer's Movement: Alzheimer’s Caregiver Burnout: How to Cope with ‘PTSD’ And Get the Help You Need

Kaiser Health News: In Nursing, Experiencing Trauma and the Resulting PTSD is a Fact of life

NPR: Nurses Say Stress Interferes With Caring For Their Patients
Credits
Music by permission from Joey van Leeuwen, New Orleans Drummer, Composer
About the Show
Welcome to Health Hats, empowering people as they travel together toward best health. I am Danny van Leeuwen, a two-legged, old, cisgender, white man with privilege, living in a food oasis, who can afford many hats and knows a little about a lot of healthcare and a lot about very little. Most people wear hats one at a time, but I wear them all at once.  We will listen and learn about what it takes to adjust to life's realities in healthcare’s Tower of Babel.  Let's make some sense of all this.
Creative Commons Licensing
The material found on this website created by me is Open Source and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. Anyone may use the material (written, audio, or video) freely at no charge.  Please cite the source as: ‘From Danny van Leeuwen, Health Hats. (including the link to my website). I welcome edits and improvements.  Please let me know. danny@health-hats.com.