Brittany Hogan 1/13/26

 Zack:  Brittany, thank you so much for joining us today. We like to start by asking our guests about their caregiver journey. Could you please share your story with us?

Brittany: I moved back in with my mom to quarantine in place during COVID and realized she had some mild issues going on… She was gearing up for a double lung transplant while also she had a perforated colon… So at that time, I started getting more involved in her appointments and I realized how much I didn't know about anything. And I started having to pay attention more. She started leaning on me more to remember things and step in. And in 2022, she got pneumonia all of a sudden, went to the hospital, and had a bed sore on her tailbone about the size of my palm, which with pneumonia, made it hard for her to lie in a certain position that would have helped to clear it up.

So that was the start of everything downhill and kind of crashing into each other--from being on a ventilator on life support about nine times, sepsis a few times, a lot of viruses that you get from being in the hospital, different rehabs, but also she became so sick to where people didn't want to admit her anymore. Very complicated situations. She had a G-tube with the tube fittings, but would aspirate on anything that was ingested. So she had to be on IV nutrition, TPN…. That happened in November of 2022 … well, in December of 22, they were like, you guys should look at hospice… There’s nothing we can do… She's like, I'm not doing that. She went to rehab, got back walking again, very frail, but she worked really hard. And she came home in March 2023.

It was a very difficult time as a caregiver because she needed very intensive care. It was more than what I was equipped to do. Even though they showed me quickly… how to do stuff that she needed, but it was skilled nursing, and I'm not a nurse… Fortunately, I have a cousin who's a nurse practitioner. She sat on FaceTime with me, teaching me… because I had to take care of this wound. I had to take care of the G-tube. I had to change the dressing on that every day. I had to do the IV nutrition every day... She needed medicine every two hours. So there went sleep… So after about a month, she went back into the hospital and never really came back home for more than like a week before having to go back. It was a continual cycle.

Eventually, in November 2023, once we handled business with the house and all of that, she was just like, okay, I'm done. When they said, there's another infection, we're going to have to put you back on the life support and all of that, she just said, nope, that's it. And I had to respect that, which was hard, but it was a long time of fighting, a long time of suffering. And so, it was her wish.

It was a very tough journey. It was very hard. And I know it wasn't as long as a lot of people's, but it was still very difficult outside of all of the medical issues, outside of the constant heartbreak of you think it's getting better and then it doesn't and she's working… but they're like, it doesn't matter what she does, it's never going to get better. The emotional toll of that, but also the fight to be heard, the fight to be seen, the fight to be recognized as somebody with a voice. That was a very big component of my journey. And that's what led me to try to create the solution that I'm working on now.

Zack:  Wow. That is an incredible story, Brittany. What's your mother's name?

Brittany:  Marilyn.

Zack:  She has got to be so darn proud of you. Were you working at all during any of that time?

Brittany:  I had to stop working. I am in TV and production and filmmaking. I have my own production company where I do independent films, but I was working with somebody at the time. We were doing COVID testing on different movie sets and TV sets and all of that. And I had gotten to a position where I was managing that whole branch of the company. But when all of this started happening, I couldn't do it… what I was doing I could only do for maybe two or three hours at a time…But even that didn’t work out well because once I realized I needed to be on top of things, I created a system to where I was a part of the care team. So things weren’t happening unless you talked to me… It was hard to work.

And eventually that took a toll…  It went from good insurance to Medicaid. It went from paycheck to living off savings. And yeah, it got really tough because there was no income coming in other than the two or three hours that I could work a week… I talked to people a lot about the hidden costs that you don't think about. Like she was in Northwestern here in Chicago, parking there was $14 a day. And if I'm there all day, it's $30. And I didn't have the energy to cook anything at home… It's food every day. It's gas going back and forth… And even me having to say, I’m sorry, Ma, I can’t come today because she’s at a hospital 1 ½ hours away. And not only am I tired, because I was probably there the night before, but I don't have the gas for that. So there are a lot of hidden costs and not being able to work. Now it's two people living off one savings.

Selma: Brittany, before you made the decision to leave your job, did you share your caregiver situation with your boss or any colleagues?

Brittany:  They knew all about it. I'm a yapper, so I talk. And it was a small group of us. My employer at the time, we're still really close now. She's a caregiver for her father, so she definitely had a heart for it. I'm definitely grateful to God because even when I couldn't work, she still tried to give me something. Like I said, she produced my short films… she paid me a salary as a director because she knew I couldn't do anything else. So it wasn't a lie. It may be like a few hundred if I helped her with simple stuff, like organizing her receipts for her taxes… So I'm grateful for her because in my journey now in research, I come across so many people who don't want to say anything… because they don't want people thinking they're not reliable or that they could disappear at any time because that is the reality… I'm glad that wasn't my experience.

Selma:  What do you think employers can do to better support people in your situation?

Brittany:  I think more of a flexible schedule would be good, just like with sick time. If your kids are sick or if you're sick and you have to leave, it's the same thing as with caregiving and being able to work in different types of ways. Maybe you don't have to be in the office all the time. Maybe it's already built in to where you can take two or three days, especially if you're dealing with somebody with chronic conditions and it's a continual thing….

Also financial resources, I've come across a lot of different caregiving tools now, which at the time I had no idea they existed. So I feel like it would be good for employers who are considering caregivers to be informed about what's out there and what could help… them and their family… to where it’s a more even temperament. They don’t have to feel that added pressure because it’s already chaos. You're trying to keep somebody alive or get them better and you’re thinking about, I got to get back to work before they fire me… That's a pressure that people shouldn't have to deal with because they're already under enough pressure, which goes right to our vision, not having to choose between your loved one and your job…

Zack:  It's very obvious that you have had a very thorough caregiver journey. Just listening to you talk and using the lingo that Selma and I have heard over the seven years of research that we've done, hidden costs. You did a great job of describing that. You run the care team. You did a great job of describing that, and the ability to identify at work or not identify at work. You're nailing all the issues. I could see why you've gone on and created something, a solution based on your experience, I'm assuming, right? 

Brittany:  Absolutely. I think I was trying to think of a solution. Or I guess I realized the problems then… I have a degree in engineering. So my brain has already processed procedures, if something's wrong, there has to be a solution.. So outside of everything else happening, I was constantly thinking there has to be a better way to do this. There has to be a better way to get the doctors to listen, because you can't scream at them. You can't fuss. You can't cuss… So I'm thinking if I get them to see that I'm capable, they will treat me differently. And that's exactly what happened.

I would record conversations. I would take notes in my notes app. I would go back and I would research when it came to medications. Don't tell me it's an antibiotic. Tell me the name. Is this the spelling? Okay, I will go back and research and I will store that stuff in my brain… Okay, I'm taking pictures of the labs, and I'm going back and I'm researching everything and what it should be. So as time went on, I knew there was so much stuff that was slipping through the cracks.

And so that's when I'm like, okay, no, y'all not just going to let my mama die because you aren't paying attention. Or, I don't want you sharing information with me and it's flying over my head. So for me, I'm getting down to all of it. So when she's not looking right, okay, let me see her labs… And I had to say in a calm voice, this is how black women die in these institutions because you don't listen to us. And you're going to listen to me….This is my mama and y'all not going to let her die because of a mistake you made, because we deserve to be heard… Go get a patient advocate. And like I said, I don't want them kicking me out, but you're not going to silence us. You're going to listen.

And so from those kinds of experiences, they saw me as a part of the care team. And when they did their daily rounds, they called me every single day -- this is what's going on, this is what we're seeing… And so when they came to me at some point, and literally it was a bunch of them, and they said, thank you for being a part of our team. It made me think about what happens when people don't have the capacity, when they don't have the stamina. When they don't know that you have to be an advocate, because it's so overwhelming, the feeling of everything. And my mind goes back to those very hard conversations where they're laying stuff out and… I have to make sure I'm able to make clear decisions. That doesn't mean I don't have any emotion. That means, though, that I recognize I need to make the best decisions, and to do that, I need to be informed. So I need to listen, and I need them to know that they can trust me with what they're giving.

Zack:  Tell us about Fairgiver.  Why is it called Fairgiver? And second of all, tell us what Fairgiver does.

Brittany:  While mama was still alive, I remember talking to her about all of the stuff that I just mentioned and she saw how tough it was on me. And I remember thinking at the time, like, I don't know, once I learned what a caregiver was, I'm like, I don't think I'm good at this, a good caregiver, but at least I'm okay, like fair. And so that's where Fairgiver came from… I needed something that people could take with them in the palm of their hands. So in doing my research for it, I saw that there are a lot of tools that can keep track of your medicines and notes and reminders and all of that. But going back to the component of understanding what's being said in the doctor's office was really the starting point.

When [the doctors] first sit you down [and tell you] this is what's happening and this and this… Do you have any questions? And sitting there looking crazy or asking, okay, what does that mean again? No. So for Fairgiver, the MVP, the main thing is I'm calling it the Clarity Companion. It's the AI powered tool that will help you understand what's happening in appointments. So if you go into this appointment with this specialist, with this doctor, you tell them, hey, I want to record this conversation so I'm able to understand what's going on better and do research. If they say yes, you record. If they say no, OK, well, I'm going to repeat back what you said for my understanding, and I'm going to record that. Either way, you record, and it spits out plain language summary. For right now, either English or Spanish for people where English isn't their first language. It spits out plain language. This is what they said. This is what to look out for. Here are questions that you can ask, pointed questions, not just the simple first layer questions, but based on what the provider said, here are some follow-up questions that you can ask.

You also are able to log notes about what happened. The same as you would record a voice note, “Hey, I noticed breathing has changed. I noticed this. I noticed that.” You're able to put in medicine. So then when you're in those appointments, the questions are not only pulling from what was said then, it's pulling from what you've logged for that entire week. So if you've logged something was wrong, the questions can now generate, “Hey, is this connected to this?”

Fairgiver as an ecosystem definitely will be a lot more robust, but for now, that's where I'm seeing the biggest gap for people. And I love that there are so many tools, but for me, thinking about new caregivers, thinking about millennials, thinking about Gen Z, people that have full lives. And when something like this comes, it's a complete halt and they don't know what to do. I always have in my mind those moments of saying how was I supposed to know this? How am I supposed to figure this out? What am I supposed to do now? So in a nutshell, that's what I'm building Fairgiver to do.

Selma:  What is your vision for Fairgiver for the next five to 10 years?

Brittany:  For the next five years for Fairgiver, I definitely, like I said, to build this ecosystem that empowers caregivers to be better advocates and to partner with these health organizations. But from the standpoint of we won't be the forgotten ones in this process. I think that the healthcare organizations are building their own tools, but it's from their side. It's for their protection, for their safety, to make things more efficient for them. I don't think they consider this side. So I want something for [caregivers]. So outside of the MVP, looking at different real connection points for people. So that's a whole thing that I'm designing out but also those tips and tricks that I learned along the way.

… Yes there are a lot of chat boxes where you can ask, okay, how do I ask about this? But I want to use AI as a tool, but also keep that human touch because it's a very human experience. I don't necessarily want to recreate the wheel of what's out there and what people are already doing, but I think it's possible for me to create a vehicle that the wheels power to get us all where we need to go in the journey.

Zack:  I met you through LinkedIn when you did a nice post about your experience at Caregiver Nation Summit. Could you share for our readers what you wrote in that post, that something shifted inside you?  I really loved how you talked about advocacy is not always loud. It's sometimes steady, informed presence in the right rooms. That's powerful! Do you mind just briefly sharing what your experience was there and how it’s going to impact what you're doing with Fairgiver?

Brittany:  I think that, like I mentioned before, this journey, people don't realize it was traumatizing. And the memories of all of those moments, it's very hard. That made me realize, I don't know if I could ever advocate in that way again. But I think even though that has a big chunk of my heart, the other part of my heart is seeing people going through situations that I went through and being able to feel that same pain.

And so I found when I say there was a shift, I saw that I didn't have to be in the hospital with somebody to help them or to say, hey, here are some suggestions or hey, if you speak their language, they listen. So that's what the heart of Fairgiver does because I hate the thought of people being in that same kind of pain. So my thought was if I can't advocate in that way, because honestly, I don't think I have it in me right now, I can do this. I can create this platform and get it to people. I can figure out how to get it to employers where they say, hey, here's a resource for you. I can figure out how to go to Capitol Hill and ask them to do the older Americans Act, to reauthorize it. I can do that. I can tell my story. I didn't realize the story was helpful for people. I didn't know. It's just what happened. But in this process, I'm seeing that that's a part of advocacy too. And I can raise my voice. I can say, hey, you're going to listen. And I don't know if I would have had that same kind of gumption and audacity in a polite way if I hadn’t had the practice of doing it during my caregiving journey.

Selma:  How can people get in touch with you and learn more about this amazing tool, Fairgiver?

Brittany:  They can visit fairgiver.co and email me at hello@fairgiver.co if they have any questions. In January, we're hoping to launch the pilot program and we'll be testing the MVP, (minimum viable product), with a few people. So if people are interested in that, I would love for them to reach out. If they have any suggestions, I'll be here.

Selma and Zack:  Thank you so much for sharing your story!