We first heard of Guided Patient Services while reading Atul Gawande’s ‘Being Mortal’. After meeting Annette and hearing what her services would provide we signed up as clients. Since then we have used her guidance through two lung cancer diagnoses; the first was stage one, and then a more serious stage 3 requiring chemotherapy and surgery. Annette has been with us during doctor visits, sitting down after each visit and reviewing what was said, which was always more than we retained. She tracked down a physician on vacation to get an answer when we had a decision deadline. Annette suggested getting a second opinion with another healthcare system that was the right call. She does things we have no idea can be done, all the while never telling us what to do, just what is being stated, and in a way that can not be done in the 15-30 minutes we are given in a office visit. Annette has checked in on us while we were in recovery mode, at times acting as the pivot point for all the different practices we were seeing, and along the way solving complex issues that have truly made our lives better while facing a serious illness. We have no medical language to draw on, and we don’t want to scroll our way through the internet, so we choose Annette to be our guide.