Episode 12 Mid Year Update and Request

Hey everybody it's John and we thought we would take a mid-year check-in for the podcast and this for this episode I will be flying solo without Fran and rather than she and I having a conversation or introducing a guest to the podcast we want to hear from you and hear and talk about what topics the things that may be of interests are concerned to you so give it give us a listen and let us know what's on your mind welcome to caregiver companion a guide for the family caregivers of cancer patients my name is John Rosano I became the caregiver for my wife Barry when she was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2014 and I'd like to introduce my friend and colleague Dr. Fran Baumgarten clinical psychologist caregiver and cancer survivor we are part of a team that created a support group for family caregivers to provide resources information and encouragement now we've created this podcast to provide these resources with greater accessibility we're not medical professionals we cannot give you clinical advice or suggestions those are best directed to your health care practitioner but we are here to offer a friendly voice the benefit of our experience and remind you there is a path forward through their caregiving journey we are your caregiver companions let us join with you on your journey welcome back everybody to another episode of caregiver companion a guide for the family caregivers of cancer patients this is John and this episode I am flying solo I am on the east coast of the US continuing to care for my sister who had her knee replaced that three weeks ago and unable then to coordinate with Fran but she and I have talked and thought that this would be a good time to sort of do a mid-year check-in so we are in the middle of our second season with the podcast and as I kind of look at the stats and the statistics of where we're at we are close to three thousand downloads and about we're we're hurting about 30 countries across throughout the world so I know Fran feels the same way as I do we really appreciate that you guys are out there and you're listening and you're getting something out of these podcast episodes and the information that we convey and just a sense that there's a couple of folks here that have walked in those shoes and understand what you're going through so it means a lot to both of us to know that you're you're hearing us and you're getting value from from what we're doing and that keeps us going and you know over the course of the last year and a half we have covered many many topics that impact the lives of of caregivers you know we've talked about music therapy we've talked about nutrition we've had numerous episodes about communication we recently did one on clinical trials which looked to be very very popular for people just a whole host of topics we've had some really amazing guests come on that are really experts in their fields who who've been able to impart their information their education their wisdom on us and hopefully you have found that to be beneficial to you we've also had just regular folks people that that are caregivers that have a partner or a parent or a friend or a child that is going through a cancer treatment and hearing from them what their experiences have been like and how they dealt with things so friend and I have chatted and we think that this is sort of a good time to kind of take a take a pause and assess where we're at and as we look forward to the remainder of this year and also for future years we want to be sure that we are providing value to each of the listeners so I'd like to ask you a favor I'd like you to let us know how we're doing is there a topic or a particular issue that you're dealing with that you would like us to explore or to discuss maybe there's something that you've gone through and you learn some lessons from that you think could others could benefit from that from that experience is there a topic that we've not yet covered that you'd like to hear about or maybe there's a topic that we covered but you'd like us to sort of re recover or go over that ground again or maybe dive deeper into it so we're really interested in hearing what your thoughts are you know this podcast is really a passion project for both Fran and I the platform evolved from the support group that we formed for family caregivers of cancer patients at the local hospital and then decided that we thought it would be helpful or more helpful I suppose to make it available in a 24/7 access so knowing that the schedule and the life of a caregiver is not their own we thought that this could provide support and guidance on demand so whether you're driving in your car to an appointment or maybe it's 3 a.m. and you can't sleep the podcast is available for you to listen and hopefully get some some benefit from and we do hope that by listening to this podcast you're you are getting something from it knowing that is all the recompense that that we need and the motivation to keep us working on it whether that's researching news and current events that affect caregivers in the political and policy world or searching for interesting guests to bring on or locating resources that we can refer you to but in order to make this your podcast with subject matter and content that's helpful and meaningful to you we need to hear from you so you can write us at our email which is care giver 270 at gmail.com you can leave a message on the blog page on our website which is www.caregivercompanion.libson.com. Libson is L-I-B-S-Y-N or you can leave a comment or a message on our Instagram caregiver.companion lastly I ask that you give us a review and a rating on whatever podcast platform you're listening to us. In the podcast ecosystem that's the best way for our humble little podcast to be easier to find for other people. Thank you for your support. Fran and I wish you all the best on your journey and remember you are not alone. Thank you everyone for tuning in and listening to this episode of Caregiver Companion. We would love to hear from you. You can visit our website www.caregivercompanion.libson.com. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N dot com. You'll find other episodes and send us your comments and questions. We'll try to answer your questions in future episodes. Thanks again and remember you are not alone.