“I just got diagnosed. Now what do I do?”
If you have recently received a medical diagnosis, you are probably being expected to make a lot of decisions, even though you may be feeling unprepared to think or do anything. Yet, the decisions you make during the first few days and weeks after learning of your diagnosis will have a profound effect on your future. If you are like most newly diagnosed patients, you are experiencing a range of emotions -– fear, disappointment, anger, to name a few. By recognizing and coping with these emotions, you are in a much stronger position as you move forward on the road ahead!
I am a counselor, author, and patient advocate who specializes in working with people facing a medical diagnosis -– some are life-threatening and some are chronic conditions. Now I am going to talk to you the way I talk to my clients about your emotional reactions to your diagnosis, the new feelings you may be experiencing that are uncomfortable and strange, and the feelings that may be hiding somewhere below the surface but that haven’t surfaced, at least not yet.