Former patient thanks Rogers for life-changing care

12/19/17 02:54:pm

Patients regularly decide to write to Rogers upon discharge, thanking them for how our care team was able to make a positive impact on them. The former patient who penned this thank you insisted on writing it for the team at Rogers–Chicago on the week they were discharged.

Dear Rogers Staff,

I have a friend who talks about how various people have changed her life. A physics teacher who taught relativity in high school, or maybe a friend who had introduced her to a new type of pastry. To me, it seemed like a rather grandiose way to describe the experiences she was referring to, and I also struggled to see how she could say that something had changed her life when she didn’t know the trajectory of her life before the particular event occurred. However, over the past two and a half months, my skepticism about the capacity of people to alter the lives of others has vanished.

Coming to Rogers has changed my life. Before I started here, I had resigned myself to the idea that the rest of my life would be dictated by the bounds of my anxiety. I wouldn’t take elevators, I would avoid living alone or being at home alone, I wouldn’t drive down quiet roads alone, and so on. I had accepted my fate as if I had a terminal illness I could not fight, and that thought wore me down each and every day. My self-esteem deteriorated, my confidence eroded, and my physical health fell by the wayside. I was two people simultaneously: the erudite, confident college student who wrote strong papers and defended unique opinions, and the scared, shaking little boy who couldn’t be home without his mother and ran from uncertainty like it was the plague. Every single aspect of my existence was determined by what would enable me to avoid anxiety provoking situations. I felt fearful from the moment my eyes opened in the morning until my head hit the pillow in the evening, and often times even during sleep. My future was both extremely bright and extremely dark.

This program is the only thing that I can say has changed my life. Though I did not know exactly what the future would be before I began here, I was certain it would not remotely resemble what it now does. Things like not riding elevators and not living alone were not just general preferences; they were strict requirements that needed to be adhered to if I wished to function, even in the debilitated state I was in. Coming here has changed all of that. I have put to rest fears that plagued me for nearly twenty years, done things that I never imagined being able to do, and gained a sense of confidence that no trigger or lapse can wrest from me. Rogers has given me a new worldview, and I am leading an authentic, healthy life because of it.

Stefanie and Jocelyn, you have changed my life, and I am eternally grateful to each of you.

With sincere gratitude,

xxx