06/22/2025
Hello, Everyone,
I Hope that this finds everyone well. One of the people who took this course at the Trinity Church in Watervliet when I offered it at an earlier time has written a testimonial about it and I would like to share it with all of you. It speaks to the important point that a serious illness most often is a deceitful, unjust enemy that will blindside someone and that person's family without shame or remorse, wreaking havoc and chaos in its wake.
Here is the testimonial:
A Testimonial
For
“Documenting Care at Home” by Valerie Falzo, RN, PLLC
Back, I believe, in early 2024, Ms. Falzo gave her course, “Documenting Care at Home”, to members of our church. Supporting Ms. Falzo’s efforts, I took the course, not thinking that I would ever need the information. It was interesting and informative. I came home and put the course binders on my bookshelf, not thinking I would ever need it.
Twenty-seven years ago, my wife developed cancer. Luckily, a “lumpectomy”, and some radiation took care of it. Every year since she has had a mammogram. Luckily, they all came out cancer free….until last year. Last September (2024) they saw a shadow that they didn’t like. The cancer came back in the same spot.
After counseling with three different doctors, they all concurred that major surgery was called for. In January of 2025, she had her surgery. We were told to report to the hospital at 6:30 AM…. By 1:15 PM they put her in my car and told me to take her home. I was given a stack of papers with instructions.
We got home; I put her to bed and started going through the after-care instructions. She had tubes coming out of her side, hanging with plastic containers on the ends. A pinkish liquid was flowing out of the incision, into the bags. I was expected to empty the bags periodically, and measure how much liquid was collected, and keep a log of the amounts that drained each day! I knew nothing about such things, nor had any training! Then there were the medications that had to be administered at different times during the day. Then there were the appointments to see the surgeon, radiologist, and the oncologist. Three different doctors at three different locations.
I was sitting at my kitchen table thinking that I may be having a panic attack! Then I remembered Ms. Falzo’s course and wondering if anything in it could be applied to my current situation…. if only I could remember where I put the course binder! Another panic attack, and I finally found it! I could feel my panic level subsiding!
The sheets she provides for keeping records were invaluable. The medication log made it easy to keep track of all her old and new medications. I recorded every doctor’s visit with vital information on a doctor’s visit log. And there were many. There was a total of five different doctors I had to keep track of. There was also a sheet that I kept the name and contact information for each doctor. On another sheet, I kept track of all our out-of-pocket expenses. I had to monitor her temperature closely. Another sheet kept those records orderly. When we visited doctors, many were quite impressed with my journal!
I realize that “Documenting Care at Home” is meant for long term care. My situation only required two months of extensive care, but without the guidance I received from this course, I would have been in a much more difficult situation. I learned that one never knows when they will be called on to provide medical care for a loved one! I sincerely thank Ms. Falzo for this invaluable guidance.
This man's experience is something that too many people experience these days within our healthcare system that has become so fractured.
This is why I created this course---to help people in this very kind of circumstance by providing indispensable tools to deal with these kinds of situations.
Wishing you all the best,
Valerie
