Your Life…Your Health…Your Choice…
Courtesy Health-Sync, Cancer Navigation, North Dallas LIVING WELL Magazine
Having survived a heart attack and stent surgery, we were well prepared for anything that came our way. Or so we thought. We fell in love 16 years ago, raised a blended family together and were reaching toward our dreams. Lung cancer wasn’t supposed to enter the picture. One minute we were living our life and the next minute we were fighting for it.
The delivery of the news was so sterile and impersonal. We were supposed to put our lives in the hands of a physician who told us it was stage III cancer over the phone and then told us to wait two weeks? How were we supposed to tell our families? I would watch him sleep at night and wonder, how do we get through this? The stress was unmanageable.
Our bright spot came when my close friend Trina told us about an independent cancer navigator and patient advocate. She explained that this was someone who worked on our behalf. Was this what we needed? I wasn’t sure, but I knew we had to do something. Tina Withrow with Health-Sync contacted us immediately and asked if she could meet with us in person and we agreed. She came to our house! She explained that she was an advocate/cancer navigator with Health-Sync and that she was independent of all hospitals and physicians––a true advocate for patients and their families. She listened to our concerns and then she told us what we could expect through this frightening journey of cancer.
“It is vital that cancer survivors and those persons in a medical crisis have a say in their treatment options. We often spend more time researching who is going to put the tires on our vehicle than who is going to try to save our lives” or deliver medical care states Withrow. We, as medical consumers, have a right to good, competent, medical treatment and if we aren’t receiving it, then we need to take our medical dollars to someone who will give excellent, competent, medical services. The Health-Sync business model was built out of a need for quality medical care and patient advocacy in the troublesome world of healthcare. By working independently of the medical community, we can recommend physicians and companies who share our vision for the patient. If they don’t deliver good quality care, then we don’t use them. Individuals and companies pay Health-Sync to manage their medical care and treatment. We service all medical and health related issues.”
That evening with Tina changed the course of our lives. She wanted to know about us as a family and what we wanted and needed from our medical team. She explained the difference in being treated like you stand a chance versus being treated like you were already dead. She put us on a conference call with a well-trained physician who spoke in terms we could understand and relate to. On Monday morning, we were in the oncologist’s office, where we received a road map to NED ( no evidence of disease ). That afternoon we were visiting with a medical team that would guide us through recovery. They explained to us where we could receive radiation treatment based on the most advanced treatment options and state of the art equipment. The goal was to get to surgery so that the cancer could be removed. Through chemotherapy and radiation we felt well loved and cared for. She was only a phone call or text away. There were times when she knew we were fragile and she would just show up! She took away the overwhelming burden and worry. She celebrated our victory over cancer. I thank God for Health-Sync and our personal medical advocate, Tina Withrow.
Tina Withrow is a certified cancer navigator and director of client services at Health-Sync. You can reach Tina at 214-546-2215 or by visiting www.health-sync.net.
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