Latest / Heartwise / HW 2026-10-15 Chronic Illness - Richard Cheu
Transcript
- 0:11Speaker 1: This is HeartWise, offering practical tips and time-proven guidelines to
- 0:16Speaker 1: make your life healthier, happier, and more fulfilling. Today you'll
- 0:20Speaker 1: learn simple Bible-based principles for building and maintaining optimum mental
- 0:24Speaker 1: and physical health, all while deepening your relationship with your Creator. Hello, everyone.
- 0:37Speaker 1: My name is Charles Mills, health reporter for HeartWise Ministries.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Chronic illness is never a welcome guest in any life.
- 0:44Speaker 1: It's a bothersome visitor that just doesn't seem to leave,
- 0:47Speaker 1: which can bring about many physical and mental changes equally unwelcomed.
- 0:51Speaker 1: If you are one of the millions of people who
- 0:53Speaker 1: are living with a persistent pain or debilitating condition, stay tuned.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Our guest today offers some practical and spiritual life-altering advice.
- 1:01Speaker 1: His book is entitled Living Well with Chronic Illness. and
- 1:04Speaker 1: I'm proud to have him with us on the line today.
- 1:06Speaker 1: Richard Chu is a former neurophysiologist, EMT, and stress management consultant.
- 1:12Speaker 1: He's also an ordained deacon and chaplain in the Archdiocese
- 1:15Speaker 1: of New York, providing pastoral counseling to patients at Bellevue
- 1:19Speaker 1: Hospital and the Visiting Nurse Service Inpatient Hospice. Richard Chu,
- 1:24Speaker 1: welcome to HeartWise.
- 1:25Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, Charles.
- 1:27Speaker 1: It's wonderful to be with you. Let's begin with the basic, Richard.
- 1:31Speaker 1: What do you consider a chronic illness?
- 1:35Speaker 2: A chronic illness is an illness that cannot be cured.
- 1:39Speaker 2: It can be treated in many cases, but it cannot
- 1:42Speaker 2: be cured.
- 1:43Speaker 1: Okay, it cannot be cured. In other words, what is
- 1:46Speaker 1: is going to be for the remainder of your life.
- 1:49Speaker 1: Is that right?
- 1:49Speaker 2: That's correct.
- 1:50Speaker 3: All right, okay.
- 1:51Speaker 1: Now, anyone with a chronic illness will say that it's
- 1:54Speaker 1: very hard to see beyond the suffering, yet you tell
- 1:58Speaker 1: us right at the start of your book to expand
- 2:01Speaker 1: our vision. What do you mean by that?
- 2:04Speaker 2: What I mean is that there is the disease and
- 2:08Speaker 2: there's the illness, which are the symptoms. Quite often we
- 2:11Speaker 2: can ameliorate, we can reduce the symptoms, and the result
- 2:15Speaker 2: of that is to be mentally, physically, and spiritually healthier.
- 2:21Speaker 3: Hmm.
- 2:23Speaker 1: And I have to say, knowing people who have chronic conditions,
- 2:27Speaker 1: that being any kind of positive, being any kind of
- 2:31Speaker 1: hopeful for the future is pretty hard under those circumstances.
- 2:34Speaker 1: How do you overcome that?
- 2:36Speaker 2: Well, I think we begin by looking at it's a journey.
- 2:39Speaker 2: And the beginning is when you receive a diagnosis of
- 2:43Speaker 2: a chronic illness. there's a flood of emotions that come up,
- 2:46Speaker 2: what I call negative emotions. Fear, grief, anxiety, and all
- 2:53Speaker 2: these add to one's stress level. And high levels of
- 2:57Speaker 2: stress are very harmful to one's health. They only make
- 3:00Speaker 2: it worse beyond what the disease is.
- 3:02Speaker 1: In other words, the reaction that we usually have for
- 3:06Speaker 1: a chronic condition actually exacerbates the chronic condition. It makes
- 3:10Speaker 1: it worse.
- 3:11Speaker 2: Yes, that's absolutely correct.
- 3:12Speaker 3: Okay, all right.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Now, of course, you know that fear is a great
- 3:19Speaker 1: part of that. You mentioned that fear. That seems to
- 3:21Speaker 1: be the hardest to overcome. We are afraid of what's
- 3:24Speaker 1: going to happen. We are afraid of what's going to
- 3:25Speaker 1: happen to us. We're afraid of what's going to happen
- 3:27Speaker 1: to our family. Is there something we can do to
- 3:30Speaker 1: mitigate the fear? Right off the top, when we have
- 3:34Speaker 1: the announcement to us, you have this chronic condition. Is
- 3:37Speaker 1: there anything we can do right that day to start
- 3:39Speaker 1: mitigating that fear?
- 3:41Speaker 2: Well, yes, I call it the stop and listen process.
- 3:45Speaker 2: As soon as you receive that diagnosis and all these
- 3:48Speaker 2: emotions come out, the first thing to do is stop
- 3:52Speaker 2: and take some breaths, which automatically begin to calm us down.
- 3:57Speaker 2: And when we begin to calm down, that's the stop.
- 4:00Speaker 2: The look part is look at the disease and where
- 4:03Speaker 2: you are in terms of that illness and learn everything
- 4:08Speaker 2: you can about it. That's so important. You learn everything
- 4:11Speaker 2: about your illness. That's the look part. The third part
- 4:15Speaker 2: of stop, look, and listen is to listen to your advisors.
- 4:19Speaker 2: And people don't realize that doctors and therapists and everyone
- 4:22Speaker 2: else are advisors. And it's really up to the patient
- 4:26Speaker 2: to make the decisions about how the health care should
- 4:30Speaker 2: be given and what the patient wants. That's the stop, look,
- 4:33Speaker 2: and listen process.
- 4:34Speaker 1: What I hear you saying is that you are part
- 4:38Speaker 1: of the healing. I guess healing is not the right word.
- 4:42Speaker 1: What would you say instead of healing? If you have
- 4:44Speaker 1: a chronic condition, you're not going to get better. Instead
- 4:46Speaker 1: of looking for healing, what should we be looking for?
- 4:48Speaker 2: I think what you're looking for is to have a
- 4:51Speaker 2: calm mind and a peaceful heart. That is the objective
- 4:56Speaker 2: of the book, to help everyone have a calm mind
- 4:59Speaker 2: and a peaceful heart.
- 5:00Speaker 1: So what you're telling us in this book is designed
- 5:03Speaker 1: to calm us down, bring us peace, which then in
- 5:07Speaker 1: turn brings about some type of relief from the problem
- 5:11Speaker 1: we're facing. Am I right?
- 5:12Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct. What it does is it allows us
- 5:14Speaker 2: to focus our energies on what do we want to
- 5:17Speaker 2: do with our potential. We have many gifts that we
- 5:21Speaker 2: all receive, and sometimes we have honed one so well
- 5:26Speaker 2: that we forget about the others. And the disease will say, oh,
- 5:30Speaker 2: I'm not the person I was before. But that opens
- 5:33Speaker 2: a window to other things you can be. And that's
- 5:36Speaker 2: what the book tries to do.
- 5:37Speaker 1: And that's what's so hard, Richard Hsu. That is what's
- 5:40Speaker 1: so hard, to see beyond it, to see that there's
- 5:43Speaker 1: something in life other than the illness. Because those with
- 5:46Speaker 1: chronic illnesses tend to think, this is my life. This
- 5:49Speaker 1: chronic illness, there's nothing beyond it. But you're saying that's
- 5:52Speaker 1: not true.
- 5:54Speaker 2: That is correct. If a patient will say.
- 5:58Speaker 2: What do I do now? That's all you have to
- 6:00Speaker 2: do is say, what do I do now? There's so
- 6:03Speaker 2: many people who are ready to help you answer that question.
- 6:08Speaker 1: That sounds hopeful to me. It sounds like you're trying
- 6:10Speaker 1: to bring hope into people's lives.
- 6:12Speaker 2: Yes, and that's what happens. In the book, I describe
- 6:15Speaker 2: and take each of the negative emotions, which I call
- 6:18Speaker 2: excess baggage, define them in a simple way that all
- 6:22Speaker 2: of us can understand and and then give practical guidelines
- 6:26Speaker 2: of how to reduce or get rid of that particular
- 6:30Speaker 2: negative emotion.
- 6:31Speaker 1: Give us an example here of one of the excess
- 6:34Speaker 1: baggage that we tend to carry around when we're facing
- 6:36Speaker 1: a chronic illness.
- 6:38Speaker 2: I think the greatest one that you mentioned before is fear.
- 6:43Speaker 2: A long time ago, President Roosevelt said, during the Great Depression,
- 6:48Speaker 2: there is nothing to fear but fear itself. And so often,
- 6:53Speaker 2: we see things as being greater than they are. If
- 6:57Speaker 2: we take a look at what is causing the fear,
- 7:00Speaker 2: then we can deal with it. But if we don't
- 7:03Speaker 2: look at the causes of our fear, we can't deal
- 7:06Speaker 2: with it, and it continues to overwhelm us.
- 7:08Speaker 1: You hit upon something that really resonates with me. I
- 7:11Speaker 1: don't like change, and... As a matter of fact, I
- 7:14Speaker 1: will fight against change when it comes to my life.
- 7:18Speaker 1: And you're saying that may not be a good idea
- 7:20Speaker 1: because your life is about to change and you can't
- 7:22Speaker 1: do anything about it. How do we handle change that
- 7:25Speaker 1: a chronic illness brings into our life?
- 7:27Speaker 2: I think the important thing is to look at our lives.
- 7:32Speaker 2: People who don't like to deal with change are constantly
- 7:36Speaker 2: looking toward the rear of the ship where they've been before.
- 7:39Speaker 2: And if we can understand that actually every moment of
- 7:43Speaker 2: our life we are changing. We're not the same person
- 7:46Speaker 2: we were yesterday or the day before or the week after.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Once we accept that we are changing and the world
- 7:52Speaker 2: around us is changing... It gets people to turn around
- 7:56Speaker 2: and look forward and see, oh my goodness, there are
- 7:58Speaker 2: a lot of things I could do I never thought about.
- 8:01Speaker 2: And that's what we do in the book, to try
- 8:03Speaker 2: to explain what changes and how to deal with it.
- 8:07Speaker 1: We're talking with Richard Chu. His book, Living Well with
- 8:10Speaker 1: Chronic Illness, a practical and spiritual guide, is available at
- 8:14Speaker 1: fine bookstores everywhere. That's Richard Chu, Living Well with Chronic Illness.
- 8:19Speaker 1: And we're talking about those areas of the life that
- 8:22Speaker 1: are altered historically. when we are facing a chronic condition,
- 8:25Speaker 1: a chronic illness, and when we are told, this is
- 8:27Speaker 1: the way it's going to be, you just have to
- 8:29Speaker 1: learn to live with it. And learning to live with
- 8:31Speaker 1: it is what he's trying to help us do in
- 8:33Speaker 1: this book. Richard, you say life is change, and change
- 8:38Speaker 1: is good, and get rid of that excess baggage such
- 8:40Speaker 1: as the fear. The next step, and anyone with a
- 8:44Speaker 1: chronic illness will tell you this, there is a great
- 8:46Speaker 1: deal of loneliness in when you have it, because you
- 8:49Speaker 1: figure no one else knows about this. No one else
- 8:51Speaker 1: has this problem. No one else feels what I'm feeling.
- 8:54Speaker 1: No one else knows what I'm going through. How do
- 8:57Speaker 1: you suggest that someone with those kinds of feelings deal
- 9:00Speaker 1: with that type of loneliness?
- 9:03Speaker 2: I think that is one of the big hurdles in
- 9:06Speaker 2: chronic illness, loneliness. And loneliness I define as not having
- 9:11Speaker 2: a close relationship with someone else. Because when you have
- 9:15Speaker 2: a close relationship, you can say things to them and
- 9:18Speaker 2: they understand. And this is what we all need, at
- 9:21Speaker 2: least one good real friend or even spouse or something
- 9:27Speaker 2: like that. Loneliness, I deal with in the book by
- 9:30Speaker 2: explaining that, okay, life has changed. It's up to you
- 9:34Speaker 2: to overcome the loneliness and redevelop new friendships, new relationships.
- 9:40Speaker 2: And I go through many different ways that you can
- 9:42Speaker 2: overcome loneliness.
- 9:44Speaker 1: I'm curious about the other side of that coin. You know,
- 9:47Speaker 1: we need friends. How do you be a friend to
- 9:51Speaker 1: someone who is facing a chronic illness? It's like someone
- 9:55Speaker 1: who is facing a death in the family. You're not
- 9:58Speaker 1: sure what to say. How do you go into a
- 10:00Speaker 1: relationship with someone who has a chronic illness and you
- 10:03Speaker 1: don't want to do the wrong thing? How do you
- 10:05Speaker 1: guide yourself through this?
- 10:07Speaker 2: Oh, haven't we all been in that situation where we
- 10:09Speaker 2: said something wrong? I said something wrong. I still remember
- 10:12Speaker 2: it 20 years later. Simply being present to someone, just
- 10:18Speaker 2: being there with them and listening without trying to answer
- 10:22Speaker 2: them or even try to change their mind. So often
- 10:25Speaker 2: we come in at the negative situation, we say, oh,
- 10:27Speaker 2: you're going to get better, you're going to get better.
- 10:29Speaker 2: Knowing well, they're not going to get better. The true
- 10:32Speaker 2: friend simply accepts what is going on and is a
- 10:35Speaker 2: good listener.
- 10:36Speaker 1: We tend to want to fix things. We come into
- 10:39Speaker 1: a situation and we're fixers. but this can't be fixed.
- 10:42Speaker 1: That's got to be a tough sell.
- 10:44Speaker 2: Well, actually, it's not a tough sell. For instance, on
- 10:48Speaker 2: the ambulance, when I was teaching EMTs as an EMT,
- 10:51Speaker 2: as one of the instructors also, and... I would say
- 10:54Speaker 2: to them, what's the most important medicine we have on
- 10:56Speaker 2: this ambulance after we deal with the situation that we're
- 11:00Speaker 2: confronted with? We come in and do our medical thing.
- 11:03Speaker 2: We're trained to do anything that's possible medically. But when
- 11:06Speaker 2: we do finish that and we're with the patient inside
- 11:09Speaker 2: the ambulance on the way to the hospital, what's our
- 11:11Speaker 2: most important medicine? They look at me, the instructors ask
- 11:14Speaker 2: this important question, and the answer is very simple. Hold
- 11:18Speaker 2: the patient's hand. And when you hold a patient's hand,
- 11:22Speaker 2: the blood pressure goes down, the pulse rate goes down,
- 11:24Speaker 2: and the patient begins to relax. That's what a friend is.
- 11:28Speaker 2: Simply hold a hand, be present. That will do it.
- 11:31Speaker 3: Wow.
- 11:32Speaker 1: We're going to take a short break, and when we
- 11:34Speaker 1: come back, the next section of your book is inviting
- 11:37Speaker 1: us to find a new meaning in life. How in
- 11:40Speaker 1: the world do we do that when we have a
- 11:42Speaker 1: chronic illness? A new meaning in life that is suffering,
- 11:45Speaker 1: that is heading for a disaster. How do you find
- 11:49Speaker 1: meaning there? We'll discover that when we continue our conversation
- 11:51Speaker 1: with Richard Chu after the break, so stay tuned.
- 12:23Speaker 3: This is Kim with my daily diary for health class
- 12:26Speaker 3: reporting what I did today to keep myself healthy. Today
- 12:29Speaker 3: I ate an apple. Yes, yes, I know. Eating an
- 12:33Speaker 3: apple each day doesn't make you healthy. But when I
- 12:36Speaker 3: ate that apple, I didn't eat something that would make
- 12:39Speaker 3: me unhealthy. I didn't eat candy. I didn't eat something
- 12:43Speaker 3: with a lot of fat in it, like a piece
- 12:44Speaker 3: of meat or foods made with a bunch of butter
- 12:46Speaker 3: or oil. I didn't eat refined foods like white rice
- 12:50Speaker 3: or white flour that don't have anything healing in them.
- 12:53Speaker 3: So eating an apple is only part of the picture.
- 12:55Speaker 3: What I didn't eat is just as important. I also
- 12:58Speaker 3: ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. These foods have
- 13:01Speaker 3: a ton of healing stuff in them, like vitamins, nutrients,
- 13:04Speaker 3: and complex carbohydrates. I learned in class that complex carbohydrates,
- 13:09Speaker 3: which are found in whole plant foods, are a lot
- 13:11Speaker 3: healthier than simple carbohydrates, like those found in refined foods. So,
- 13:15Speaker 3: I eat mostly whole foods, like fruits and vegetables, not
- 13:18Speaker 3: refined foods that come in cans or packages. How does
- 13:21Speaker 3: this make me healthy? Well, many of my friends are
- 13:24Speaker 3: kind of fat. Okay, they're very fat. Fat isn't healthy.
- 13:29Speaker 3: But because I eat mostly whole foods, I'm not fat.
- 13:32Speaker 3: Because I'm not giving my body anything to turn into fat,
- 13:35Speaker 3: like all those calories or fatty foods. My body has
- 13:38Speaker 3: the foods it needs to stay healthy, and nothing more. So,
- 13:42Speaker 3: When you see me eating an apple, don't just say, hey,
- 13:45Speaker 3: Kim is eating an apple. Instead say, hey, look, Kim
- 13:48Speaker 3: isn't eating sugary candies or foods with a lot of
- 13:50Speaker 3: fat in them. See what I mean?
- 13:54Speaker 1: God has given us everything we need to be healthy
- 13:57Speaker 1: inside and out. During Creation Week, He established a health
- 14:01Speaker 1: plan for every creature on earth. To learn more about
- 14:04Speaker 1: healthy living and about the God who created us all,
- 14:08Speaker 1: go to kidsbibleinfo.com. That's kidsbibleinfo.com. This program was brought to
- 14:14Speaker 1: you by the Children's Ministries Department of the General Conference
- 14:17Speaker 1: of Seventh-day Adventists. Welcome back to the program. I'm Charles
- 14:38Speaker 1: Mills here with Richard Chu. He is the author of
- 14:40Speaker 1: Living Well with Chronic Illness, a Practical and Spiritual Guide.
- 14:44Speaker 1: This book is available at bookstores everywhere, also on Amazon.com.
- 14:49Speaker 1: That's Living Well with Chronic Illness. Now, Richard, you say
- 14:55Speaker 1: in your book, when you begin part three, that we're
- 14:57Speaker 1: supposed to find a new meaning in life. Here is
- 15:00Speaker 1: a person that was just told that they have this condition,
- 15:02Speaker 1: it's not going to change, they're going to be suffering
- 15:04Speaker 1: with it the rest of their lives, their life may
- 15:06Speaker 1: be even shortened by it. How do you find meaning
- 15:10Speaker 1: under those circumstances?
- 15:13Speaker 2: The process that I've described is three steps. And the
- 15:18Speaker 2: first one is to calm down and control those negative
- 15:22Speaker 2: emotions and get rid of them when we can. The
- 15:25Speaker 2: second part is start living a healthier life. A healthier
- 15:30Speaker 2: life means that with your illness, what kind of healthy
- 15:34Speaker 2: habits would I have that will help me fight my condition,
- 15:39Speaker 2: help give me strength, physical strength and so on, and
- 15:43Speaker 2: support my mental strength, which has been improved by getting
- 15:46Speaker 2: rid of the emotions. So if we improve the mental
- 15:49Speaker 2: health and we improve the physical health, then we have
- 15:53Speaker 2: room now to improve what I call spiritual health. And
- 15:57Speaker 2: spiritual help, you focus on what you think is most
- 16:02Speaker 2: important in your life, and then you use that tremendous
- 16:06Speaker 2: energy that's available to every one of us called the
- 16:09Speaker 2: human spirit. That energy allows us to go toward the
- 16:13Speaker 2: target that we want to move toward in our chronic illness.
- 16:18Speaker 1: As a Christian, you would know that God can play
- 16:23Speaker 1: a part in someone's life. God is there to bring
- 16:25Speaker 1: comfort and joy and all that. But illness has a
- 16:29Speaker 1: really bad habit of masking God. You can't see him
- 16:33Speaker 1: beyond the pain. You can't see him beyond the fear.
- 16:36Speaker 1: So I can see why you can get rid of
- 16:37Speaker 1: the fear. You'll see God clearer. But how do you
- 16:39Speaker 1: get rid of the pain? How do you get rid
- 16:40Speaker 1: of the uncertainty enough to see God in your life?
- 16:45Speaker 2: There's a story about a fellow named Alex in the
- 16:48Speaker 2: book about how he was, you know, a very He
- 16:52Speaker 2: practiced Christianity. He was a very good Christian. And he
- 16:56Speaker 2: got this disease. He got so mad at God because
- 16:59Speaker 2: he thought of God as Santa Claus. If I'm a
- 17:02Speaker 2: good boy, you'll give me a gift. And he eventually
- 17:05Speaker 2: came back when I counseled him to really think about
- 17:09Speaker 2: what are your gifts? What are the gifts you still
- 17:12Speaker 2: have that God has given you? that you can use
- 17:15Speaker 2: to move forward, and what is it that you can
- 17:18Speaker 2: achieve in your lifetime with those gifts? And once I
- 17:21Speaker 2: began to help him focus on the remaining gifts, he said, wow,
- 17:26Speaker 2: I had a lot of potential.
- 17:27Speaker 1: I could use. Oh, that is marvelous. In other words,
- 17:29Speaker 1: during those times when we feel God is away, God
- 17:33Speaker 1: really isn't away, am I right in saying that? It's
- 17:36Speaker 1: like we've moved away from him, he hasn't moved away
- 17:38Speaker 1: from us. There has been something thrown up between us.
- 17:41Speaker 1: God isn't gone, we just can't see him clearly. Would
- 17:43Speaker 1: I be right in saying that?
- 17:44Speaker 2: Yes, I think so. I think it's maturing. We grow
- 17:47Speaker 2: up with it more like a Santa Claus approach to God,
- 17:51Speaker 2: and we don't mature as we grow older, our faith
- 17:54Speaker 2: doesn't mature. And it takes a crisis sometimes to suddenly
- 17:58Speaker 2: take a new look at ourselves.
- 18:00Speaker 1: You know, whenever I hear someone speak of this topic
- 18:04Speaker 1: and reading in your book these areas, I have to
- 18:07Speaker 1: say that even Christ himself went through this on the cross.
- 18:12Speaker 1: What did he say that demonstrates that he felt separated
- 18:15Speaker 1: from God?
- 18:16Speaker 2: Yes, and he said, forgive them, they know not what
- 18:19Speaker 2: they do. And he said, where there are two or
- 18:23Speaker 2: three in my name, I'm with you. And so two
- 18:27Speaker 2: would be a patient and a caregiver.
- 18:29Speaker 1: Oh, I like that.
- 18:30Speaker 2: And I think the caregiver is so crucial with a
- 18:33Speaker 2: chronic patient.
- 18:35Speaker 1: And he says, you know, my God, my God, why
- 18:37Speaker 1: have you forsaken me? Jesus, hanging on the cross, went
- 18:39Speaker 1: through that very thing that you say in the book.
- 18:41Speaker 1: He felt that separation, but God had not separated himself.
- 18:44Speaker 1: God was there. He just couldn't see him through the
- 18:46Speaker 1: pain and through the fear of what was happening to him.
- 18:49Speaker 2: You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right.
- 18:53Speaker 1: We're talking with Richard Chu. His book is Living Well
- 18:55Speaker 1: with Chronic Illness, a Practical and Spiritual Guide. Now, This
- 19:02Speaker 1: next section, it's actually chapter 8 of your book, Find
- 19:05Speaker 1: Meaning in Your Life Story. A lot of people believe
- 19:09Speaker 1: that when they have this diagnosis of a chronic illness,
- 19:11Speaker 1: when they are facing this huge hurdle, they think their
- 19:16Speaker 1: story's over. They think it's done. You're saying that's not
- 19:19Speaker 1: quite true.
- 19:21Speaker 2: They're looking backwards. And in the chapter, I try to
- 19:24Speaker 2: help them turn around and look forward and use their
- 19:28Speaker 2: past life as a trampoline to spring off that using
- 19:32Speaker 2: their gifts into the future and that's where if you
- 19:37Speaker 2: begin to understand that your life is not over i'm
- 19:39Speaker 2: feeling they're not taking their last breath there is a
- 19:42Speaker 2: future and the thing is to focus on what do
- 19:45Speaker 2: you want to achieve in your future and move toward
- 19:48Speaker 2: it the key is to run a good race. That's
- 19:51Speaker 2: the key. You know, where we place in the race
- 19:55Speaker 2: is not as important as to have run a good race.
- 19:58Speaker 2: And that's what the chapter tries to do. Find ways
- 20:00Speaker 2: for you to tell your story. And when you tell
- 20:03Speaker 2: your story, you realize, wow, that's really amazing. I did that.
- 20:08Speaker 2: So many people say that.
- 20:10Speaker 1: During the break, you and I were talking, and you
- 20:13Speaker 1: mentioned that there was a difference between a doctor sitting
- 20:19Speaker 1: down and talking to a patient and someone like you,
- 20:22Speaker 1: a consultant or a deacon or a chaplain sitting down
- 20:25Speaker 1: and talking to someone. A lot of individuals expect their
- 20:29Speaker 1: doctor to sound like you, but they don't. How do
- 20:32Speaker 1: you train a doctor, or should we train a doctor,
- 20:35Speaker 1: or is it necessary to train doctors to sound like
- 20:37Speaker 1: chaplains when they deliver this kind of news to someone?
- 20:41Speaker 2: I think it's very hard because, you know, I've been
- 20:43Speaker 2: on both sides. I taught medical students, nursing students. I
- 20:47Speaker 2: was an EMT for 12 years. And I understand from
- 20:51Speaker 2: the medical side what you're doing is trying to decide
- 20:54Speaker 2: where the patient is with respect to the process of
- 20:58Speaker 2: the disease. Every disease goes through a process. And their
- 21:02Speaker 2: time is so limited. because we don't have enough doctors
- 21:05Speaker 2: in the United States. I think there's a shortage of 15,000
- 21:08Speaker 2: primary care doctors. So doctors' times are very limited, and
- 21:11Speaker 2: they have to focus on the disease process. On the
- 21:15Speaker 2: other side is the patient's expectation or perspective, which I've
- 21:18Speaker 2: been trained to look at as a deacon, as a
- 21:22Speaker 2: hospital chaplain, as a caregiver, to see through the eyes
- 21:25Speaker 2: of the patient. And we can't expect to train the patient.
- 21:29Speaker 2: doctor to be more pastoral because they're already doing so much.
- 21:33Speaker 2: What we can do is ask the patient to be
- 21:35Speaker 2: prepared for the meeting with the doctor. Write down your questions.
- 21:41Speaker 2: When you ask the question, if you don't understand, be
- 21:43Speaker 2: sure you ask the doctor, please explain. I didn't understand that.
- 21:48Speaker 2: Bring someone with you. Two pairs of eyes, two pairs
- 21:51Speaker 2: of ears are much better because then it's more likely
- 21:55Speaker 2: when you go away from the appointment, from the consult,
- 21:58Speaker 2: that you and your friend or persons with you can discuss.
- 22:02Speaker 2: What did the doctor say? What am I supposed to do?
- 22:04Speaker 2: So that is part of it. The expectation is that
- 22:07Speaker 2: we want the patient to take more responsibility for their health.
- 22:11Speaker 1: I like that. I like that. And I think a
- 22:15Speaker 1: good combination for anyone who is facing this is to
- 22:18Speaker 1: sit and listen to the doctor and take the information down,
- 22:21Speaker 1: have the friend talk, And then sit down with this book,
- 22:24Speaker 1: Living Well with Chronic Illness, a practical and spiritual guide
- 22:27Speaker 1: by our guest today, Richard Chu. And this will be
- 22:30Speaker 1: his pastoral visit with you.
- 22:32Speaker 2: Mr.
- 22:32Speaker 1: Chu cannot go around and meet with everyone, but that's
- 22:35Speaker 1: why he wrote the book, I'm sure. And this book
- 22:38Speaker 1: will be that pastoral visit. And just make it part
- 22:41Speaker 1: of your library, listener, and just have it available to
- 22:44Speaker 1: you so that if you receive news that says you
- 22:47Speaker 1: have a chronic illness, this is the way it's going
- 22:49Speaker 1: to be. You're not going to get any better. You're
- 22:50Speaker 1: going to have to live with this. then grab this book.
- 22:53Speaker 1: If you can't travel to New York and sit down
- 22:55Speaker 1: with Richard Chu, grab this book and sit down with it,
- 22:58Speaker 1: and he will give you wonderful information to help you
- 23:01Speaker 1: physically and spiritually as you face the chronic illness. Once again,
- 23:05Speaker 1: the book is Living Well with Chronic Illness, a Practical
- 23:08Speaker 1: and Spiritual Guide by Richard Chu. That's C-H-E-U, Richard Chu.
- 23:13Speaker 1: I recommend that book very highly. Richard, thank you so
- 23:16Speaker 1: much for being with us. Any last words of encouragement
- 23:19Speaker 1: for those who may be facing this very problem in
- 23:21Speaker 1: their lives right now?
- 23:23Speaker 3: Yes.
- 23:24Speaker 2: Believe, and it will happen.
- 23:27Speaker 3: There you go.
- 23:28Speaker 1: That's wonderful. Believe, and it will happen. Well, our time
- 23:31Speaker 1: has flown by. Thank you, Mr. Chu, for being with us.
- 23:34Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
- 23:34Speaker 2: Thank you so much for letting me be on with you.
- 23:37Speaker 1: And, listener, until next time, this is Charles Mills, along
- 23:40Speaker 1: with Richard Chu, inviting you to remain heartwise. Goodbye, everyone.
- 24:00Speaker 1: Once again, our web address is heartwiseministries.org.