Understanding H.E.A.L.T.H. is crucial for anyone looking to be an effective healthcare advocate for their loved ones. Savannah shares her personal experiences navigating the healthcare system for her mother, emphasizing the importance of helping family members understand their medical conditions, treatment options, and rights. She outlines the five pillars of healthcare advocacy: helping, empowering, advocating, listening, and tracking, all while maintaining a focus on holistic care that encompasses emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. Throughout the episode, Savannah intertwines her insights with biblical wisdom, providing listeners with a compassionate and practical guide to supporting their loved ones during medical challenges. She also shares the items she brings to the hospital to ensure she can advocate effectively while caring for her mother.

Takeaways:

• Being a healthcare advocate means understanding medical conditions, treatment options, and patient rights thoroughly.
• Active listening is crucial in healthcare advocacy to understand the patient's concerns and needs.
• Tracking appointments, medications, and patient progress ensures that no vital information is overlooked.
• Holistic care addresses the emotional, mental, and spiritual health of the individual, not just physical.
• Empower patients by ensuring they are aware of all treatment options available to them.
• Preparing a hospital bag with essential items can greatly ease the stress of surgery days.

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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to casting seeds.

I'm Savannah, your holistic health practitioner and host.

And you're listening to the only holistic health podcast that uses God's singular truth to give you individualized discernment.

This week's episode, I have gotten so many questions as to how I was a healthcare advocate for my mom in the hospital before and now coming up for future surgery.

So I thought I what a perfect time because I'm actually packing my bag for Monday morning right now and.

Yeah, and medicines and things like that that I want to bring for my health safety, my husband's health safety, but also my other family members who are going to be there, not to mention my mom, and just how I'm going to be preparing for that in general.

Also, our nourishing news today is going to be super interesting because I didn't know that the military was preparing for some type of holistic health in the future, and they're trying to mesh the health that they do now with more holistic health.

So I can't wait to get into that.

But ultimately, I am super excited to kind of bring all those things together and explain how God definitely used especially holistic healthcare and advocacy, a way for me to kind of talk about him and what I do for a living.

Last time I was in the hospital, so I'm praying for those opportunities again.

But let's get into the show.

All right.

I have another fun acronym for us that we're going to be going through today.

I love acronyms.

They kind of.

They help me memorize things and what to do.

And this is going to be health.

H e l t h.

Health.

H is for help.

I want you to help your family member and the other medical practitioners around you understand their medical condition, which means you need to understand it as well.

This includes treatment options and individual patient rights.

Also the rights that the patient has given over to you, so on and so forth.

E is to empower them, empower the individual to make informed decisions by ensuring that they're aware of all of the choices available.

So this also means that you, if you are the healthcare advocate, you should feel empowered to know that you are informed of, you get to make the decisions and that you have to have a collective decision making with whomever else is on the healthcare team.

So that just allows you to be able to feel empowered to then go to a being the advocate.

Advocacy by communicating clearly with healthcare providers and ensuring the patient's voice is being heard and understood.

So not necessarily your own right, you don't want to put your own intentions and your own opinions, but whatever the person wants who may be incapacitated or unable to communicate their views, l is for listening.

We have to listen.

We have to be an active listener as well to the concerns and needs and preferences regarding the individual's healthcare.

So like for instance, my mom, I had to listen and understand what her preferences were, not just mine.

But then listen also goes into listening and understanding what's going on during the healthcare procedures.

Listening and understanding the worst case scenarios and the best case scenarios.

Active listening is about being able to understand and repeat what you've said to other family members or other people who may be concerned and want to check in with the person who may be being worked on.

T is to track.

So tracking starts before any big surgery or operation.

It starts beforehand, it happens during, and then it goes on to after.

So tracking appointments, tracking medications, tracking progress, you have to ensure nothing goes overlooked.

You are tracking everything for this person.

You are keeping all of the details and you are making sure that everything is laid out easily for this person to be able to do prior, during and after.

And you may not even be a part of the after maintenance, it may be for somebody else.

So that's why tracking everything, being able to explain it with your active listening, all of these things are really important for the caretakers of the individual that you're helping.

Last is holistic care.

So this is focusing on the whole person, whole wellness, right?

We want to focus on the emotional, the mental, and of course the spiritual well being, not just the physical aspects of the care.

So physical aspects are important.

But what I'm saying is holistic health is about focusing on the whole well being.

I always joke that holistic should be spelled like w h o l e because it's whole mindfulness of the individual.

So let's break down h e l t h, health and discuss what that really looks like and what that meant for me.

Helping my mom as her healthcare advocate and even being written down on the list as the.

It's kind of goes between my dad and I.

It will be either he's the first person they contact for everything, or myself.

If my mom is incapacitated in any way, which means that she's under anesthesia and things like that, and then I have been the main person to let my family know what's going on outside of that.

This doesn't mean that you have to be someone in the holistic health field, right?

You want, if it's yourself, who's going to be going under something like this, you want to pick somebody who you can trust, who's organized, probably someone who's a little more type a, but also someone who's not going to oppose their own opinions onto your life, especially if you have certain wishes and wills, you want to make sure that even if the person disagrees with you, they're going to respect that.

And sometimes picking someone outside of your family circle is a big part of that.

So a really close friend, you can even hire somebody to be your healthcare advocate.

But I always recommend, if you're going to have a healthcare advocacy team, you should have one family member that you trust, one person that's a very close friend that you trust that is going to be able to take themselves outside of the situation, especially if it's life or death, maybe even, you know, cause we have to sign documents about like, life support and things like that.

So if, like, for instance, my dad could have, or could try to overstep my mom's wishes of not wanting to be on life support, and a family friend may be able to make a better justification and better decision so that my dad doesn't make a biased decision on what he wants versus what my mom's wishes were.

These are hard conversations.

They're not things that are fun to talk about, but these are the things that you have to talk about preparing for any surgery or sometimes even birth.

So here's the thing we're getting into.

Help.

Help your family member understand their medical condition, treatment option and rights.

Before you start becoming someone's healthcare advocate, you have to have a hard conversation of sitting down and saying, okay, what is your actual medical condition?

And don't just ask them what it is.

You have to go do your own research on what the medical condition is.

You also need to learn what their insurance is, what their insurance covers when it comes to treatment options.

You can look up things that may be experimental, things that the doctor has written down and already recommended.

And also, you need to understand patient rights.

And this is something that frustrates me more than anything because I don't even think most doctors understand fully what patients rights are.

And that's why people feel very taken advantage of.

But if you also don't take the time to learn what your individual rights are as a patient and as a healthcare advocate speaking on behalf of that patient, you're not going to be able to benefit them in any way, shape or form.

So just know this is the baseline, the baseline of what you need to know.

And one of the biggest things that Jeremiah and I learned, especially during our miscarriages, was that we had the right to refuse any treatment at all.

We didn't have to get the extra blood draws that the doctors were asking for.

We didn't have to.

How do I say this?

We didn't have to say yes to anything.

Everything that they said was strictly just a suggestion.

But the way the doctors came in were, okay, we're going to do this lab and this lab, and we're going to take this test, and we're going to check this.

They didn't give us a breath to be able to make a decision.

So what I'm going to say is, whenever a doctor comes in, I understand that sometimes there are life or death things, and things have to happen right away.

It is okay to say, okay, thank you for giving us all that information.

I wrote it down.

Please come back in.

In three minutes.

Three to five minutes, we're going to make a decision over all the things that you mentioned and kind of just figure it out from there.

You and even any life or death situation, you can have five minutes to decide.

I understand if someone's using a defibrillator, you know, like someone's coding, that's a little different.

But most of the time, you can take five minutes to seriously pray about things or go over things with the patient, if the patient is awake, and ask them what they're comfortable with and even look at, like, their insurance and things like that.

So just know if you come very prepared to an appointment, it could be even less than five minutes of you being able to make a decision.

But I'm telling you, you do not have to make a decision with the doctor in the room.

And you also have the right to stop the doctor and say, I have questions on this, this, this, and this.

Doctors are made to teach you.

You are supposed to ask them questions.

They are supposed to answer.

If a doctor does not take time to answer your questions or kind of brushes them off and doesn't make them, like, a big deal, then it is time for you to find a new doctor or to ask for a different doctor on that floor.

And you can.

You totally can.

Sometimes they only have one surgeon on the floor ready or, you know, like one specialist in, and that's absolutely fine.

But then say, I don't have questions for you.

I have questions for another doctor that I'd like the other another doctor to, like, answer for me, because you're not taking the time to do that.

And then if we deem that this is okay and we're ready to go.

We'll say yes for the surgery or for this treatment.

And yes, you can be the main doctor, but I would like to have somebody else come and answer all my questions for me first.

So just know you are paying them.

You are a client, a patient, a customer.

Put that all together.

They are trying to sell you on what they think would be best.

They are not salesmen, but sometimes they can be.

So you have to use, yes, wisdom and discernment, but also just practical knowledge on whether or not it's going to be the right thing for you and your family.

So h help helping your family member understand their medical condition, their treatment options and their patient rights.

Okay, I hope that makes sense.

E is empower.

So this kind of goes.

Every single one of these are going to collapse with the one before it, but empowering the individual to make for informed decisions by ensuring that they are aware of all of the choices available.

So here's the other thing, and this kind of goes back with the helping and especially with the patient rights.

You have to be able to ask the doctor, what are all of the options?

I understand that this was option one.

You said that this person needs to have lumbar back surgery.

The l five, their disc is out.

But if we decided to opt out for surgery, what are all of the other treatment options?

And legally they have to tell you what all treatment options are.

Some doctors may kind of use a cop out saying, well, I don't know, this is what I specialize in.

You could go talk to a PT.

You could, and then you say, okay, great, well, I'm here.

If you have a PT handy, please have them come into the office.

Because at hospitals they have pts.

In hospitals they have neurosurgeon, neurosurgeons.

Sometimes a neurosurgeon surgeon is better.

They have specific spinal surgeons.

They have people that like specify in disc health and disc healing.

They have all of the people there.

So if you're at a hospital, especially, talk to the people, ask them, ask the doctors and the nurses for the specialists.

And if the specialist isn't in, they call them in.

That's why doctors are on call.

But people don't know that.

And then they make it kind of a big deal.

Doesn't matter.

Your health is first and foremost, foremost important, and you should feel empowered to make the best decision.

And you can't do that without all the information present.

Sometimes empowering also means that you are doing research also beforehand and then going into a doctor's appointment.

Because if you're a healthcare advocate for a family member, you should be going with them to especially the major appointments and getting all the information possible.

So I also recommend doing a lot of research, not just as the patient, but especially as somebody who's going to be coming in and speaking on behalf of the patient.

You need to know what you don't know.

So making the most informed decision is going to be understanding that you are aware of most of the choices before you even go in.

I understand that, you know, emergencies happen, and sometimes you're not aware of the four different types of surgeries you can have for a kneecap replacement.

I don't know.

I'm making that up, but do you get what I'm saying?

I understand that sometimes things happen, but you should be prepared if it's a long term thing.

Like, for instance, my mom's cancer.

I've looked up all sorts of different types of healthcare varieties and what helps her and also her symptoms and what specifically is going on with her, not just the general things that are going on with her paraganglioma cancer.

So when it comes to healthcare advocacy in general, yes, get the general information, but be specific to your individual.

My mom specifically has different things going on with her blood and things like that.

So I have taken note of that.

Written it down, written down her health history, her parents health history, and I have that already in case she's unable to do so.

So the only way you can really feel empowered and make informed decisions and make good choices is really by preparation and having everything available.

And it can be on your phone, it could be in a health pamphlet that you have that you bring with you whatever is best for you and your family member.

Okay, let's move on to a advocate.

This is going to sound redundant, but it's really not.

It's advocacy.

Advocacy is communicating clearly with a healthcare provider and ensuring that the individual patient's voice is heard.

So, advocacy, you are speaking on behalf of somebody else.

This can be very, very hard, and it can be very difficult to not be biased and not want to do what you think is best for you and that family member in this situation, if you feel like at any point in time you could be insanely biased, healthcare advocacy is not going to be good for you.

I know for a fact that during these past few situations, my mom has a do not resuscitate.

And my grandma, actually, I was an advocate for her.

She also has a do not resuscitate for her.

And I asked them, I was like, for this surgery in particular, do you guys want.

Do not resuscitate on it, like, do you want to live afterwards if, like, your heart stops or things like that happen, or you need a blood transfusion, whatever it is?

And both of them said, well, yeah, I mean, I still have a long life to live.

And I was like, okay, so for this surgery in particular, before we go in, before you sign your paperwork, because you have to sign a load of paperwork.

The day of the surgery, I made it very clear to them.

One of them I was sitting next to while they were filling out paperwork, the other one I was out of the room.

But I reminded them to tell the nurse practitioner before they started that they wanted to sign that day that they would like to undo it.

It wasn't like a permanent thing, but for that surgery specifically, they wanted to undo it.

So things like that, that people just kind of don't think about when going in and preparing for surgeries.

Also, too, if you have any freckled red hair, kind of, what is it?

I guess more of a fair skin.

My mom.

My mom has more red head and freckles, especially when she was younger.

You also don't do as well with anesthesia, and you need to have more anesthesia to help keep you asleep longer and deeper.

People who have that type of descent or lineage in their background, even if you, like, your grandma was super red haired and freckly, I would still ask for more anesthesia because you have that kind of background.

So just know things like that can happen where someone could wake up during surgery, which is, like, literally my biggest fear.

You won't remember it if you wake up, hopefully.

But that one Ryan Reynolds movie really scarred me.

Do you guys know what that is?

I need to look it up now.

What is that Ryan Reynolds movie?

Okay.

I can't find it.

I don't know.

But there's this one Ryan Reynolds movie where he goes under surgery, and then he, like, can feel everything.

And because he wasn't fully put asleep, and I don't even know, it was like, it's a horror film for me.

I just.

That is the worst thing I could ever think of in my entire life.

Also, I hear the news coming.

Welcome to the fourth installment of the nourishing news.

This is Savannah giving you your up to date weekly nourishing news of holistic health and health trends.

So this week in holistic health news, I discovered that the military is interested in holistic health, specifically the army of all.

If you were to ask me what branch would have been interested in holistic health, I would have thought maybe air force.

I feel like they're like the rich kids of the military.

The Navy probably second, but if you, if you couldn't have paid me to think that any of all the branches, the marines or the army, would be interested in holistic health and fitness, but it's called the H two f program.

So this effort integrates physical, mental, nutritional and spiritual health to improve the overall soldier's fitness and combat readiness.

This shift is shown to improve not only physical health, but also mental resilience and overall sleep quality, especially in veterans.

So these trends are being explored through the us military, which is even including modalities like Reiki and sound therapy, intuitive readings, and also learning about integrative medicine.

So listen, I would never in my right mind think, think this at all, but I'm actually really excited that there's some sort of start happening.

And I swear when they test things, it always is on the army.

First.

I don't know why, I don't know a ton about the military.

I have a lot of friends who are in it, and I know people in the military and family in the military, but I swear the poor army is tested on everything.

But I'm glad they finally get a good test for once.

So let's learn more about this program.

So this is male and female.

Postpartum recovery also has to do with men as well.

The h two f teams will also be integrating some national guard and reserve units throughout the decade.

And the new fitness resources will also come in with a significant investment in gym equipment for these units.

Also, Jeremiah and I constantly look up because you can go and find very inexpensive gym equipment.

You can buy it off of the military, especially if you're close to a base.

That is a fun fact.

You can look it up, and I don't have the websites that you can look it up on, but they're like little auction sites and it's easy to find.

You can also buy trucks and beds and many things.

So here's a quote by I don't know what Col.

Means is that colonel, I don't want to.

It's Jason Falconberry.

I don't want to.

I don't want to devalue this person.

I don't know what Col.

Means.

I should look it up, actually.

Let's do that.

Maybe I'll get a better hit than the Ryan Reynolds movie.

Col.

Meaning military.

What's a conal?

Is that a kernel?

I'm gonna look up conal versus kernel.

Kernel?

Wait, okay, Kernel?

Is this how you spell kernel?

And I just never knew.

Okay, wait.

An older form of the word that's used to style with spoken is the word kernel.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, you guys, I did not know this.

A kernel, which is like.

Sounds like a popcorn kernel.

Like sound.

Basically, it's spelled c o l o n e l.

There's no r.

Why.

Why is a conal.

I hate English so much.

Okay, this blew my mind.

The pronunciation of colonel is actually colonel, so I was right.

It's a colonel.

This person's a colonel.

This is so annoying.

Okay, so back to Colonel Jason Fulcam Barry's quote.

New weapon systems are pointless if you don't have the soldier them to man them, which is actually really cool.

I love seeing the investment in these soldiers because we know soldiers will always be used in any future conflict versus investigating in any technology that may or may not be used.

That's awesome.

Behavioral issues and units within the h two f teams are down 14% compared to the rest of the army.

And in addition to muscular and skeletal injuries, they're also down 30%.

I love this.

This makes me so happy.

The service also saw increases of the rate of soldiers passing the army combat fitness test, which is the ACFT, by up to 35%.

This is awesome.

So it looks like they're really going to be diving in deep into the h two f programs.

And sergeant major of the army Michael Weimer said, it is not the equipment I get excited about.

It is the subject matter experts that come with the equipment.

To be honest with you, later in life, I found the importance of the mental and spiritual component.

The longer you do this job, the longer those will be at the forefront of your mind then the magic pillar, sleep.

So they are really starting to understand the balance between all of holistic health and wellness, which is oh, so amazing that I feel like the military is starting to get there, and that brings me some sort of joy.

And that is your nourishing news for the week.

Getting back into healthcare advocacy.

We are halfway through.

We have done the h, the e, and the a, which is help, empower, and advocate.

Now we are in to Ellen, then t track and h holistic.

So for l listen, we want to actively listen to the person's concerns, needs, preferences regarding their own healthcare.

This means that you may know more things than the person who is going to be worked on, the person who's going to go under a big surgery.

And that means you are going to take a step back from your knowledge, from your wisdom, from your discernment, and you're going to listen, actively listen, and understand what their needs and concerns are so that you can then do that research for them or with them and look into it and dive into it together and say, hey, yeah, if you're worried about not being able to heal well afterwards, because you tend to have issues with scarring, that means we have to reduce the inflammation of your diet.

Do you want to do that?

Is that something.

How important is this to you so that you actually can get better faster?

If that really is a concern for you, how.

How much would you like me to push this and take this where?

Post your surgery.

Post op, we're going to be making sure that even the food that they give you in the hospital is at a certain degree, right.

Or I'm going to be bringing food to you, or I.

Whatever it is.

So it's about talking about someone's healthcare goals ultimately, and then listening to where they're at.

Because I could have the healthcare goal of being like, okay, I broke my leg and I want to be able to get back into playing soccer within three months.

All right, well, let's actually break down.

What happened to you?

Your femur actually broke through the skin.

The doctor said it's going to take a minimum of four months for you to be able to be able to walk again normally.

And that's with extensive care.

Like, you have to go into physical therapy four days a week.

You're going to be seeing a neuromuscular therapist, all those things.

Is this a thing that you'll be able to financially support?

How much was insurance going to cover?

All that kind of stuff.

And also, are you going to take your diet seriously to be able to heal and recover?

Okay.

So actively listening to someone's concerns and needs and their preferences also means that you're going to be helping them get to their healthcare goals the best way possible and also maybe helping them realize that their goals don't really match their needs.

Like, I had a client one time that, by the way, hip replacement surgery, you could be walking literally the very next day out of there, and she refused to walk for six months.

She said it was super painful and uncomfortable, and the doctor said, you know, it's not as big of a deal as you think it is.

Yada, yada, yada.

And when they looked at the area, there was no inflammation, no redness.

And when I touched that area and worked on it, it also wasn't hurting.

But there was a huge mental, emotional aspect that nobody was looking at that I tried to speak to her about and addressed that.

She had severe depression before going into the surgery.

She had a lot of identity with being taken care of, especially when it came to her children.

They didn't really seem to hang out with her unless they had to take care of their mom.

So those types of things had to be addressed.

Once I got her to see a therapist and also a Bible counselor, so she started seeing both.

She unfortunately never ended up walking, and she actually ended up passing away two years later, I think just from lack of motivation.

And she had really poor gut issues and all that stuff.

She also was much, much older.

But, you know, I also.

I also ultimately don't know what fully happened, but I did love her a lot, and I love her family a lot.

And going to her funeral was very hard and very sad, but it was a huge blessing being able to love on her and take care of her and be an advocate for her and speak to her kids and say, you know, like, she's lonely and she does need someone to speak to, and she needs you guys around more.

And I do think the last few years of life were probably some of the happiest years, which was a huge blessing to be a part of.

So act listening or listening actively is so much more than just being there for the person and allowing them to just kind of word vomit on you.

It's about being able to also help guide and love on the person in front of you in a healthy, non judgmental, and kind way, which there are definitely bible verses for doing that, which I will list because I don't have them there, but.

Well, you know what?

I'm actually.

I'll list the bible, a bible verse for each one at the end for h e a l t h.

That's what I'll do.

How about that?

All right, onto t track.

So we're going to track appointments, track medications, track progress, tracking things to ensure that nothing is overlooked.

Okay.

This can be the most daunting and overwhelming thing for me personally.

I don't know if anyone has heard any parts of this breakdown and has thought, like, oh, man, that's gonna be a lot for me.

I think the listening actively would be difficult for most people.

But for me personally, the tracking is so much because you also have, if this person isn't like your husband or your wife or your kids, then you're doing it for yourself and your own family all day, every day.

And then now, all of a sudden, you're tracking this person who doesn't live with you, even if it's your own family, like my mom.

But, you know, I got to take care of my dogs and my husband.

I'm taking care of my household and my job and my work.

And then now I'm tracking my mom's appointments.

I'm checking in with her.

I'm checking her diet and her water.

And if she also, it's like, it's hard, too, because some days I can tell she wants to have that accountability from me and me tracking these things and her medications and if she's taking stuff and blah, blah, blah.

But other days, I can tell she doesn't want it.

So I think that can be hard on any relationship when you're saying, hey, remember you asked me to help you and live on you through this?

And it's, it can be kind of hurtful when the person doesn't reciprocate it well or understand it well.

But here's the thing.

We have to take a step back and recognize sometimes that when someone's in severe pain or inflammation, where it's just any type of the severities of worry, fear, whatever it is, there's going to be some sort of, how do I say this?

There's going to be anger, there's going to be lashing out.

And it's because that person is feeding into the sin aspect of their fear, right.

Or their pain.

And that constant, consistent nagging, whether it's pain, like, just, I actually made a real, like, I think it was like, six months ago, and so many people said that they related to it.

People think that chronic pain or chronic stress, chronic anything, is like someone rolling on the ground.

And I did all these, like, funny videos of someone screaming, grabbing their leg, like, and that's not what chronic anything is like.

Chronic inflammation is literally the face of Cillian Murphy.

If you don't know who he is, he's the head actor in Peaky Blinders.

He is literally, like, he constantly, when he's being interviewed or in movies, he has, like, the most tense looking jaw, and he's just, it looks like he's staring off into space, but he's listening and he's just very intense.

Looking.

He almost has RFB all day, every day.

And that's what chronic pain feels like.

It's just that constant.

Like, I'm here, I'm present, but I'm not fully present and I'm not fully here.

I never will be because I just feel this all day, every day, and I'm just trying to focus on this one thing at hand.

So just know that that's the hardest thing for me.

T tracking is super difficult because I feel like the person who's helping can make things about them and get hurt and take things personally, when sometimes it's just not about you.

It's even if the person asked you, like, please hold me accountable, check in, do all this, and then they kind of resist you and fight you.

They're doing that because they asked for the accountability, because they knew that they were going to have a hard time.

So just know that's one of the hardest things for me.

And if it's hard for you, I totally understand, but don't take it personally, ever.

Last but not least, of course, is holistic care.

This is a really good check in to have.

When you've done the h, e a, l t, h or t, not the age yet, when you've done all the things prior.

It's good to check in and say, okay, have I checked in with this person's emotional, mental and physical health?

Great.

But have I checked in on their spiritual well being as well?

Yes or no?

Right.

So this kind of gives you the everyday, the h, the second h gives you the everyday way of loving on the individual.

And yeah, sometimes if someone's comatose, you can't check in with any of these things.

You can with their physical health, probably first and foremost.

But doesn't mean you can't pray for them.

It doesn't mean that you can't be there in ways where you're talking to them, even if they're asleep and loving on them and ensuring them that you're trying to make the best decisions possible.

Sometimes when someone's gone through a severe surgery and they feel alone and they're at home, they can't do the same things that they're doing anymore.

That's when you come and you be there.

You be present and ask them, can I take you somewhere?

Can it be a drive, even in your wheelchair or whatever they want?

Can I go with you to an appointment?

How can I be there to be the mental, physical, emotional support and also a spiritual support, especially for a brother and sister in Christ?

How can I pray for you how can I love on you?

So these are the types of things that we want to be, to be checking in with ultimately and being really persistent with.

I feel like I could have a whole episode just on checking in with emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well being.

Maybe I will.

But ultimately these things are little kind of trucks and treasure troves for you to feel like you're doing the right thing ultimately, but also checking in with yourself and be like, okay, I feel like I'm doing the right thing for this person, but am I actually doing the right thing and what's best for them?

What is God actually saying for me to do versus how I feel I should be doing?

So this is going to include also what's in my bag for what I'm preparing for my mom and her surgery on Monday.

When you are doing a hospital bag, I understand that not everyone is prepared for overnight.

I always want to prepare in case I have to stay overnight.

So I took the day.

I'm always off on Mondays, but I took the day off on Tuesday and my clients know that that week I am preparing the same way that I did for her last surgery.

That if I have to kind of jumble people schedules around, I will group them together.

But I will be staying overnight with my mom to be her healthcare advocate and so that my dad can be there during the day and get good rest.

in the morning.

I am making sure that everyone is getting to bed early on Sunday.

I am bringing pajamas, so sleepy night pajamas again, ones that I can switch into in the hospital.

I'm bringing an extra pair of clothes, lightweight things though, like leggings, an extra shirt and a sweatshirt that I can also roll into a ball and sleep on if I want.

In my car, I am going to have a setup because it is so uncomfortable sleeping in the hospital and they call or text you anyway if anything's going on with surgeries or post op and stuff like that.

But I'm going to be sleeping in the car, which would be way more comfortable.

Unless my mom has moved into a different or room where I can sleep next door, then that will be different.

But in just in case, I will have a sleeping bag in the car and a sleeping pad.

So I have that ready as well.

Specifically, what am I bringing for?

And during my mom's surgery, I am bringing a ton of teas and herbs and tinctures that are relaxants for everyone who's going to be in the waiting room, and for myself, but also blood boosters, which is what I had for my mom last time.

I'm also going to be bringing herbs and tinctures that boost immunity.

So that's kind of important to me.

And we're going to be bringing, like, games.

I'm bringing some card games and a laptop and my phone and, of course, chargers for all these things and one more backup charger in case someone forgets, and wall plugins.

So these are kind of all the most important things to me.

I also always bring my Bible, but I'm not bringing my physical bible this time, just because I know I have everything on my phone and instead I'm bringing a book.

But it is biblical.

So that, one, it can strike up conversation with people in the waiting room or a nurse or doctor who may not know the Lord.

But two, ultimately, I want to be able to just kind of dive in to the Lord and things that I'm learning about with him specifically and so that it can take away from my emotions and feelings and fears when it comes to my mom.

So those are the things that I'm bringing.

Oh, oh.

I also am going to be wearing shoes that are non slip, but if I end up staying overnight with my mom, I always bring, like, a pair of, like, lightweight sandals.

I have a pair of earth runners, which are perfect.

I use it for backpacking as well.

So I love using light things like that that I can kind of transfer and put on.

Especially I sleep with my shoes on in hospitals, um, just because they cross me out.

Last time I slept in the hospital with my mom, I brought socks, and then I literally, I threw them away when I got home.

Like, those were my socks I wore around, but they just.

Yeah, no.

So just for safety reasons.

But, um, yeah, and I always recommend bringing something like, I.

My sweatshirt is also something I cuddle with and use as, like, a blanket if I need, or as a pillow, or I just put it on.

So.

And then everything that I bring home from the hospital, I immediately disinfect and throw into the laundry.

I don't even bring it into my house just because it's a dirty place where people are sick and gross.

So that's my husband.

And I's number one rule.

And if you guys want to know more about the herbs and supplements that I brought to help my mom in the hospital, because I did make her tea last time, and it did.

It helped her pass out and go to sleep, which was so wonderful.

That concoction was skullcap, rose, chamomile, calendula, and I think that was.

Oh, and, um, hibiscus.

That was the last one.

So it just kind of helped with blood flow in general in her body and helped make sure that she was clotting properly.

They're all healing herbs.

They're all central nervous system relaxants.

They're all really wonderful.

And they also made the whole or smell so good.

Like, everyone was like, oh, my gosh, what's that smell?

And it was literally my mom's tea, and I made it myself, but my mom really wanted some.

So ten out of ten recommend just bringing some loose leaf herbs and tea.

I just brewed it into a cup and then strained it out, and it was very easy with a napkin.

So I would recommend probably bringing, like, a little strainer instead of doing what I did.

But, yeah, it was really fun.

And I got to also give some to the nurses and doctors on staff, and it really.

They just all really loved it and appreciated it.

So, yeah.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Casting Seeds.

You guys know that this is all, like, happening right now in my life and very close to my heart, especially with my mom and her health, Jeremiah and I's health, of course, always.

And we're just always here to be open and sharing what's going on with us and how we're dealing with these things holistically.

And here are the verses for the HDD.

E a l t h.

All right.

For h help, I chose James two, verses 14 through 17.

It says, what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such faith save them?

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it in the same way, by faith itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead?

So I picked this verse for help, because when we help our family member or, you know, whoever else in their medical condition, treatments and options and rights, we're not going to say, like, hey, you know what?

I'm praying that you figure out what's best.

I'm praying that you know what's best for yourself and look into the diets.

This is when you say, I'm going to help you filter out all these things and what your rights are, I'm going to look into it with you and I'm going to walk alongside of you, not just say, praying for you.

Bye.

So that's why I chose James.

Chapter two, verses 14 through 17 for h help.

So for eat empower, I'm actually reading verse as a chapter two in Philippians and going from verse one all the way to eleven.

I tried to shorten it, but it's just so beautifully well said and well written.

It's really hard to shorten it.

And we just want to make sure that we're imitating Christ's humility, right?

And that is the most empowering thing that you can do for another believer or for someone who's never experienced that type of love.

So we're going to read that here, starting in verse one, Philippians two.

So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full according of one mind.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility.

Count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equally with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing.

Taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This may sound like a mouthful to say empower, but if you think about a Christian being empowered, we have the power of the Holy Spirit because of what Christ did for us.

That means it doesn't matter what the circumstance is, how horrific and how detrimental or how awful it is that a family member or yourself is in the hospital, that you're dealing with these healthcare things.

Ultimately, if your hope is in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, and you understand the weight and the gravity of what Jesus did for you, and you've repented for that, and you are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, you will not be living by fear, you won't be acting out in a way that people would expect.

You'll have that peace that surpasses all understanding, which means you are more empowered than any of the informed decision making that you could make in any way, shape or form.

So just know having that power from the Holy Spirit is the most empowering thing that you will ever have, and above anyone who is unsaved and above anyone who claims salvation and clearly doesn't have it.

So just know empowering is the main thing that God does besides saving us.

For a advocate, this proverbs 31 verse is so perfectly said and beautiful.

There are so many verses in the Bible when it speaks on advocacy, whether it's humans being an advocate and being just for God's values and morals, or the Holy Spirit and Jesus being an advocate for us, right?

So I just I love advocacy in the Bible.

But proverbs 31, verses eight and nine specifically says, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly.

Defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Talk about being a true advocate for anyone and everyone, not just the person in place next for elle listen, this is going to come.

I honestly recommend someone should read all of proverbs 18, but let's start in verse one and end in verse nine, just for today and time's sake.

Proverbs 18 one whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire.

He breaks out against all sound judgment.

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

When wickedness comes, contempt also, and with dishonor comes disgrace.

The words of a man's mouth are deep waters.

The foundation of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.

A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

The words of a whisper are like delicious morsels.

They go down into the inner parts of the body.

Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

So this is obviously more of a warning of what happens if you don't actively listen.

In proverbs 19, it also explains explains how to be an active listener, which maybe that would have been better.

Let's go to proverbs 19.

No, I'm glad I didn't read proverbs 19, but I do recommend reading proverbs 18 and 19 if you are someone who is not slow to speak, slow to anger, and who needs to become a better active listener, especially not making things about them and making things more about the Lord's concerns and what God wants.

So for t track, I actually chose hebrews twelve one and two.

It talks about running, which is not obviously that's not the track that I'm talking about, but it.

It's understanding how to cling to the Lord when there's a bunch of different stuff going on.

So, starting in verse one, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand and throne of God.

So when all the craziness is going on around you and you have to keep track of a million different things, ultimately this verse is saying, keep true to your main focus, which is Christ, and everything's going to be okay.

It's all going to be aligned.

You can't control everything.

You can keep note of everything.

Yes, but ultimately, God's going to do what he's going to do, what he is deemed best for the person that you are advocating for or for yourself, I should say, and or last, is holistic.

H.

This 1 may be surprising to you guys, but I actually picked Matthew six, verse 34, and I'll explain why after.

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I say a lot to people who are in holistic health are coming to me to get holistic health advice, that all you can do right now is understand that this appointment, this time that you're seeing me, is going to be different than the one you're going to have next time and the one before that you had.

Because today your body is doing something and going through something, experiencing something that you weren't experiencing before or after.

Even if it has somewhat of the same symptoms and pains, it's still a little bit better or a little bit worse than before.

So that's why I always say, don't focus on tomorrow or yesterday.

Focus on what's going on right now.

What can we talk about right now?

What can we take control of right now?

And if you think about holistic health as mental health, emotional health, physical health, and spiritual health, that's focusing right here and being present right now with the Lord.

So that's why I picked that verse.

I hope you guys enjoyed everything that we spoke about.

We as in me, I guess I'm used to having Jeremiah on the podcast.

Everything that I spoke about today.

If you have any questions or concerns or want to know more, I would totally hear for you in any way, shape or form in healthcare advocacy.

And I definitely recommend that you follow me on socials because I'm going to be going over healthcare advocacy a lot within these next few weeks for myself and my mom, so please be praying for her.

Please keep praying for Jeremiah and I's health and my health with Candida and healing from that for our miscarriages.

And I'm also here to pray for you guys and if you need prayer for healthcare in any way, please let us know.

Send us an email, send me a message on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube and I can't wait to hear about how this has helped you guys in the future.

And I pray that you never ever have to use this.

But the day that you do, I hope that this was super insightful and helpful for you.

Love you guys and as always, keep casting seeds.

We hope you enjoyed learning how to cultivate God's creation from a biblical perspective.

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We would like to remind you before we leave that perfect health cannot be attained in this world.

Only spiritual salvation through sanctification and repentance to God and turning away from sin will give you a perfect body in the kingdom come.

Nourish yourself in the word, in prayer, and in biblical fellowship daily.

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Keep casting seeds.