I never expected to become a co-survivor, but I chose to become an advocate.

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Who is Lady Glaucomflecken?

And What Is A Co-Survivor?

My name is Kristin Flanary, and I’m a speaker, writer, and advocate for human-centric healthcare, as well as the brains behind the Glaucomflecken educational media business. The center of my work is sharing the co-survivor experience – what a spouse, partner, parent, sibling, child, or friend goes through when their loved one endures a health crisis. These are the experiences that are often overlooked in a healthcare system (and society) that prioritizes profit over people.

So how did I get here? My story takes a lot of turns. Professionally, my background is in higher education, marketing, and communications. I studied cognitive neuroscience and social psychology, earning my bachelor’s at Texas Tech and my master’s at Dartmouth. I met Will in undergrad, and decided I was game for a lifetime of really specific medical jokes. That means I’ve been there for the entire medical training ride, from pre-med to private practice.

As if the general chaos of med school, grad school, residency, my early career, and parenthood weren’t enough, we also got to prevent Will’s body from trying to kill him. By the time we were 35, he’d suffered two cancer occurrences and a sudden cardiac arrest – one that I saved him from with 10 minutes of CPR while our children slept in the next room.

Unraveling all of these experiences changed  us forever.

Will’s journey in dealing with the aftershocks, while profoundly impactful, was a little more straightforward than mine. I didn’t have the words to describe the psychological effects of caring for my husband through cancer treatment, much less those of witnessing and responding to his acute medical crisis. People didn’t understand that our trauma was deeply intertwined, and that I was affected just like he was.

But, we’re nothing if not scrappy. While Will used comedy to cope, I learned to understand what it meant to be a co-survivor – and made it my mission to show up for others who went through what I did. I’ve used my platform on social media to share writing and resources to support co-survivors, educate healthcare professionals on the patient and family experience, and give anyone who knows a co-survivor the tools to show up for us.

Together, we turned our social media presences into something even bigger.

We’re now co-founders and co-CEOs of Glaucomflecken, LLC: an educational media business on a mission to center humanity in healthcare. Here’s just a bit of what we’re up to: