AUTHOR INTERVIEW: DR MARGARET ARANDA AND NO MORE TEARS: A PHYSICIAN TURNED PATIENT INSPIRES RECOVERY, VERSION 1

A chat with Margaret Aranda, MD, PhD,  

Author, No More Tears: A Physician Turned Patient      Inspires Recovery

Host: Mom Godfrey 

Dr Margaret Aranda:  Hello, Mom! thank you for interviewing me. I'm a Standford-trained doctor; who was in a car accident with my daughter who was then 3 years old. She was fine. I wasn't and the doctors were stumped because they never heard someone with my complaint before. The book was written while I was bed-bound for six years. My intravenous fluid went into veins for three and a half years. The book was all about persevering, about beating the odds, about being that one in a million person that's going to make it.

Image 1. Dr. Margaret Aranda, Patient Advocate, Invisible Illness expert. We thank you for your proactive work in putting Invisible Illnesses front and center

to our medical professionals, and to our patients alike. 

Mom: Wow, what a tragedy, thank God that your little one was protected by her angel. I can't imagine how you felt when other doctors didn't understand your complaints. What inspired you to write your first book?

Dr Margaret Aranda: I wrote this book because I wanted to share my experience as a physician and a patient. These weren't any rules. Sometimes, the nurses say, "you shouldn't be your own doctor", other times, they would say "It's a good thing that you're a doctor." It was crazy, confusing and frustrating.

Things were even more confusing when I complained that I felt like fainting when I stood up, well, that's not compatible with living on planet earth with gravity, you know? So I had to fight for my future and try to get people to believe me. I documented it, so it could serve as advice for anyone going through illness, accidents, life changes, divorce, disability, aging, mysterious diagnosis, caregivers, stress in marriage, medical problems, or all of these at once.

It was just crazy to wake up and feel like I was living in someone else' body! I know exactly what patients go through; I know how they feel about visiting a doctor. And in my book, NO MORE TEARS: A physician turned patient inspires recovery, I gave insight into the medical system; A Doctors "SOAP" Note, the Patient's Bill of Rights and a Don't Fall Campaign for Elders.

Mom: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Dr Margaret Aranda: Never give up. Persevere. Take it one day at a time sometimes take it one hour, or one minute at a time. If I can do it, I believe you can.

Mom: Good message! what kind of advice would you give other writers?

Dr Margaret Aranda: Keep writing. Some of your work may be ok, some of it may not be so great, yet a few pieces may be spectacular. So keep writing different venues, stories, and and yes, do blog hops too. Just as a photographer  may need to take 26 photos to get the perfect one it is worthwhile to write and re-write, to trash and re-trash your work until it reaches perfection.

Mom: What kind of marketing techniques have you used for selling your books? Which ones have been most successful?

Dr Margaret Aranda: I have been living the book. Walking the walk. I have been relentlessly telling the story, especially about my near death experience (NDE) and going to the door of heaven. I am so proud that our daughter survived without injury. I tried to reach the real concept of taking the bad, and remolding it, re-shaping it, so that it works together for good.

I used my "Perseverance" blog and lots of social media:

Author blog: www.drmargaretaranda.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@arandaMDPhD

Pinterest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/draranda

Google: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DrMargaretAranda
Book Purchases Website: https://drmargaretaranda.tateauthor.com/other-books/

And am always looking forward to helping others, to gain collaboration and to serve the lost and forgotten population of disabled people who are socially isolated and crave human contact.

Mom: That's great. So why should we buy your book?

Image 2. Trailer of my Book, No More Tears: A Physician Turned Patient Inspires Recovery. Teaches you everything you didn't think you would ever need to know about having an illness, seeking a diagnosis, and living with it. (Keep your sanity!)

Dr Margaret Aranda: Because its there to really help the sick. It inspires, beckons and is weighted with medical information on seeking a diagnosis, speaking up, care giving and its pitfalls, talks of horrors to avoid. This book will guide you through an illness, show you a winning attitude and help you to persevere! you shouldn't have learn everything in life from your own experience. You can just learn from mine.

Mom: What important advice do you give to young girls in high school?

Dr Margaret Aranda: I love talking to our youth because they have so much to give. I always tell girls to stay in school, to write as much as they can and take pride in what they write. If you can write, it will help in all areas of your life but stay in school. Get your education.

Mom: Do you have special place where you write?

Dr Margaret Aranda: I definitely like writing in bed. After nine years of being mostly bed- ridden, that's just my comfort zone.

Mom: What projects are you currently working on?

Dr Margaret Aranda: I' m currently putting my health first and building a relationship with the ill. I have a petition on Change.org to increase eduction for medical students and physicians seeking to review their licenses.

It would have them gain additional hours of time learning about invisible illness. This could have weeks, months, or even decades of patients quality of life as they get their diagnosis, and that's a national health care issue. Too many patients are waiting too long for a diagnosis and that is a national health care issue.

Too many ER doctors have either (a)  never heard of Dysautonomia, POTS, chiari, fibromyalgia,lyme's disease, pure autonomic failure, orthostatic intolerance (OI) and lots of other chronic illnesses, or (b) do not know how to treat them in the ER.

I' m spearheading a permanent change that will lesson the frustration for the patient and physician alike and some health care dollars and quality of life. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to keep patients in the community rather than see them bounce back to the hospital.

Again am also on the advisory board the Invisible Disabilities Association with Wayne Connell as the Co-Founder and President, and I am working on a comprehensive handbook of resources for the disabled.

I became a minister last year, so I hold the bible study and saturday sabbath services each per week on google+ . I also do a Fasting & Prayer Ministry for our Orphans, the Sick, and the Poor. 

I help feed poor orphans Kampala and adopted two daughters whom am mentoring in succeeding in life. I encourage others to do the same, as those of us that live with a refrigerator, food, a bed, and a roof over our heads make up 25% of the world's population. We ALL need to give. Thank you so much for having me. It has been my pleasure.