Justin and Allison talk openly about the state of their mental health before becoming caregivers and the ways this role has impacted their anxiety and depression. Justin also shares how a new medication is impacting his wife's overall well-being.
After multiple treatments were unsuccessful, Justin and his wife had settled into the reality of life with her chronic illness. At a recent appointment, their doctor mentioned a promising new study in which some Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) patients saw improvements when adding a new medication. Listen in as Justin shares what it feels like to have a glimmer of hope and as he and Allison talk about the experiences they have had over the years of having, losing, and being devastated by hope.
Allison found out about her husband's most recent cancer diagnosis when an alert popped up in his MyChart account announcing a new Test Result. Listen in as she describes to Justin what the moments and days after opening that message have been like as her family sits with a diagnosis but not yet a plan.
Coming off of three weeks of being sick, Allison talks with Justin about what it’s been like to be under the weather while caregiving. The two of them talk about what drives them to do all that they do and discuss how challenging it is when they are out of commission.
In this episode, Justin and Allison talk about how Covid being a worldwide phenomenon provides an opportunity for all of us to talk about and work through our grief around it more easily, using our common language and experiences. They dig into how these moments can be used as a practice ground for having conversations about and processing hard things, as well as making room and time to celebrate amidst it all.
Allison and Justin talk about how caregivers need community care in order to practice self care, how they each practice acts of micro-care throughout the day, and what supporters can do and say instead of, “Are you taking care of yourself?”