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The Joan Lunden Interview (Page 2 of 3)
An
Interview with Joan Lunden
Gary Barg:
Well, it’s a challenge. That’s a place
where a caregiver really can be a
partner with the doctor, but we so often
consider ourselves secondary to the
decision makers. We shouldn’t because,
as I always like to say, “You’re the CEO
of Caring for Your Loved One, Inc.”
You’re in charge.
Joan Lunden:
Absolutely.
Gary Barg:
You just have to know it.
Joan Lunden:
And the CEO of your own health
care. So often, a doctor says something
and it falls on deaf ears because you
don’t understand it completely. Doctors
are human and they’re trying to get
through things. They have their own kind
of doctor speak that they think in and
often they don’t put things in language
that is well understood by the patient.
So learn how to listen and then repeat
after each thing they say: “So you want
me to take this medicine morning and
night” and “You want me to take it with
food or without food?” I think this
really helps you better understand what
you should be doing to make the most of
those doctor/patient conversations and
actually how to pull that off, how to do
it.
Gary Barg:
One of the challenges of the family
caregiver is that we take ourselves out
of the circle of care. We don’t, as you
said, go to the doctor, but our loved
ones go to the doctor every single time
they need it. We don’t eat right, but we
make sure our loved ones get their
nutrition. We don’t get any rest, but we
make sure our loved one gets all the
rest they need. And it’s no help to our
loved one for us to fall apart.
Joan Lunden:
They’ll make sure that their parent goes
to the doctor. They’ll nag their
husbands to death to go to the doctor.
We’re wired, I think, just by nature to
be caregivers. It makes us incredibly
adept at being multi-taskers and rising
to the challenge. Even if we’re sick at
the time, we can just march right
through that, but we are not so great at
taking care of ourselves.
Gary Barg:
And the funny thing is, that is the most
important thing we can do.
Joan Lunden:
Because you know, if you don’t take that
time to take care of yourself, to go in
for those yearly checkups, and to really
make sure you keep track of your own
numbers and you know what your health
is, and you’re taking the adequate steps
that the doctor told you to take, you’re
not going to be your best for that loved
one who needs you so much and for the
rest of your family. And when you think
of cholesterol, and we know what the
diet is that America is eating, so it’s
not hard to understand why somebody has
high cholesterol. But I think that the
numbers are sometimes hard for people to
understand and they kind of zone out.
When you look at some of the actual
numbers, it’s amazing; about 71 million
adults in this country report that they
have been diagnosed with high LDL
cholesterol. That’s just kind of mind
boggling and only half of that number,
34 million, report ever being treated
for it. High cholesterol is a major risk
factor for heart disease; but you add
one more risk factor, which is not
difficult in today’s day and age, and
now you’re at serious risk for
cardiovascular disease.
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