Set your goals beyond your diagnosis and your prognosis

We ask doctors for a prognosis because we want to know what we’re dealing with and what our odds are for healing. We may be afraid and wonder how others have faired with similar conditions.

The challenge in making accurate prognoses is that each person is unique. We can look at the averages but in every disease category you can find people that radically exceed expectations.

My brother is an example of an exceptional patient who regained more functioning after a major traumatic brain injury than anyone could ever have imagined. Twenty-five years ago, while he was in a coma, his prognosis was very grim. He was not expected to have much cognition, mobility or functioning.

Through a mix of denial, faith and perseverance my family worked tirelessly to help him heal. We believed he could hear us even when there was no outward sign. We used familiar smells, music, voice recording and every imaginable stimulus to help his brain recalibrate and come back to life. We gathered a team of friends from far and wide to support him. Over many years, despite the odds, he made a miraculous recovery and despite his significant disabilities, he lives a fuller life than anyone could have predicted.

Here’s a less happy story. One of my teachers was treating a man with a leg growth. He was responding well to treatment. The fear that inhibited his life was easing and the growth was shrinking. A few months later, he got a melanoma diagnosis for the growth. He was terrified and he stopped believing he was healing. He was sure he would die, which is sadly what happened not long afterwards. She used this case to teach us about the power of the mind.

Exceptional patients have specific qualities that anyone can cultivate with the right support.

Can you imagine?