A Patient's Voice

Intro Why This Book? Let me start by formally introducing myself. My name is Gilbert Lee Barr, Jr., born February 28, 1958, the only son to Gilbert and Georgia Barr in the rural North Florida town of Perry. I had a wonderful set of parents, who were both school teachers, my mother in elementary school and my father in high school, along with coaching football and basketball. I had a rather normal childhood, especially from a health perspective. I graduated high school in 1976 and went on to graduate from North Florida Junior College in June 1978. I moved to Tallahassee, Florida in September 1978 and on to Detroit, Michigan in October 1985 where, as of 2007, I still reside. Growing up I was actively involved in sports, primarily basketball, and aside from odd jobs, worked as a computer operator until moving to Detroit. There I was employed with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), where I spent the majority of my time with the corporation supporting a national health care claims system in a variety of areas until leaving the corporate world in April 2002, primarily due to health reasons. I have been with my wife, Ma-Shelle, since 1990 and have one stepdaughter, Ra-Shelle, and one granddaughter, Saniya. I am the sole author of this book, which is based on my life, beliefs, experiences and opinions. To ensure we are on the same page and you benefit from reading this book I want to give you upfront my primary objectives and disclaimers. This book is written from three viewpoints. The first is strictly from a patient’s perspective. The writings are solely based on my personal experiences as a patient, caregiver, and interactions with the medical community, along with those others in my life. Any information is based on my opinions obtained from my experiences and things I’ve learned over the years. Unless noted, no information in this book is from a medical professional’s perspective and by no means whatsoever is intended as medical advice. Always consult your medical professionals before applying any information acquired outside of your medical professionals to your daily life. The second viewpoint is from my professional experience supporting a national health care claims system for over 16 years. The system supported the benefits for corporations such as GM, Ford, Chrysler, and K-Mart, to name a few. I worked in a variety of positions such as data center manager for multiple data centers, data center project manager, developed financial forms, financial analyst responsible for the data, printing and mailing of financial forms to customers, and as a business analyst responsible for implementing policy updates, supporting current policies and troubleshooting any issues regarding the processing of claims. This experience allows me to understand what goes on behind the scenes with claims processing from a professional perspective. In addition I have been in the position where I depend on health care benefits for my own health situation for over 20 years. As a result I can relate both the professional and personal perspectives of health care benefits. The third viewpoint, and most influential, for which this book is written is based on my personal faith in God. Faith is an important part of my life and has a major impact on everything I do, thus my faith cannot be ignored as having an impact on the writing of this book and my actions during my life in general. I want to make it perfectly clear I have no intention to convert or influence anyone in his/her personal beliefs. I have no alternative motives other than giving you insight on what I believe and how my beliefs have helped me get through life, especially my health life, in a positive manner, as they simply can not be ignored. I’m not going to dwell on my personal philosophy regarding my beliefs because I feel strongly that is a personal choice for each individual. However, I will tell you the basis of my spiritual philosophy is quite simple and pure. I believe in the unconditional worship of one God for everyone. It is my belief all people are created equal in the image of God. If we weren’t equal, why are humans able to reproduce and why is everyone susceptible to the same diseases regardless of his/her personal traits or beliefs? It doesn’t matter to me, nor should it to you, how an individual gets to God, as that is once again a personal choice. At the end of the day the same God is the Master of us all. It is your personal responsibility and duty to face God on your judgment day and only God can judge your actions on earth. I feel if you treat everyone with equal respect, pray every day, and when you do wrong – as all humans do from time to time – you take responsibility for your actions, sincerely repent of your sins to God, and seek forgiveness of those your actions have offended, then, you will be okay on your judgment day. For the sake of this book, and a primary source of my actions, the emphasis will be on your inner voice which we all have. Whether you call it your inner voice, gut feeling, instinct or fate, I strongly believe your inner voice is God communicating with you and guiding you. How many times have you listened to your inner voice and good has followed your actions or you have not listened to your inner voice and a bad decision resulted? We are placed in situations for a reason. It’s up to the individual to have the trust in his/her faith to follow that inner voice. It’s my faith in God that has allowed me over the years to trust unconditionally in my inner voice to guide me throughout every aspect of my life. This is why faith cannot be omitted as a source for my viewpoints and experiences. My overall objectives are to help other medical patients (hereon referred to as patients), caregivers, medical professionals, family members, employers, and the general public to learn from my vast experiences dealing with chronic health conditions. I understand from experience that living with any medical condition affects all aspects of one’s life. I want to give my experiences on how to be a successful patient or caregiver to others so they too will be successful and have the benefit of someone’s prior experience, knowledge, and tips which I lacked in the beginning of my health journey. I understand everyone is a unique individual and in turn handles his/her own situations in a unique way, but hopefully I can help you develop your own beneficial processes from the simple tips I provide. There are a lot of things that’s going to be written that might sound simplified or like plain ole common sense but when you’re sick or helping a loved one and the stress levels rise, these simple tips or actions can be easily forgotten. My objective is to instill those processes into your memory bank so when the situation arises you will be prepared.