Grief
Anticipatory Grief Log for an Upcoming Medical Procedure
Client faces a scheduled medical procedure that will change them physically or functionally, and the grief is complicated by hope and fear.
Anticipatory grief is real grief, and it is often not witnessed. The client is expected to stay positive and brave, which means they grieve alone. A surgery, amputation, end-stage illness treatment, or other procedure can involve genuine loss: physical function, identity, a sense of wholeness, a future they expected.
This log gives the client space to grieve what is coming, separately from coping with what is happening.
Anticipatory Grief Log for an Upcoming Medical Procedure
Each day before the procedure, write down what you are grieving. Not what you are afraid will happen. What you are grieving right now.
What will I miss about my body or my life before this? (Running. Feeling whole. Having two breasts. Not having a scar. Waking up without pain.)
What identity am I letting go of? (I am someone who could do X. I am someone who was not sick. I am someone who did not have limitations.)
What future am I releasing? (The physical things I wanted to do. The way I imagined aging. My sense of myself as healthy.)
What am I grateful for that stays? (My mind. My partner. The fact that this is fixable. The life I still have ahead.)
Do not try to balance grief with gratitude. Feel both. Write both. They exist at the same time.
On the day of the procedure, bring this with you if you can. After, add one line: I survived this. This is what my body is now.
Do not rush past the grief. Grief is not weakness. It is the price of having mattered to yourself.
Generated with Rapport7 — rapport7.com