Strength to Stand: Surviving Guillain-Barre and Pulling Back the Curtain on Long-Term Care

Life Inside a Skilled Nursing Facility-A Resident's Perspective

For years, Sonja Schmieder dedicated herself to caregiving, offering support and compassion to those in need. But when life took an unexpected turn, she found herself on the other side of the equation-no longer the caregiver, but the one requiring care. Diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and confronting the realities of aging, she entered a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), a world that so many people pass through but few truly understand.

Through raw personal insights, sharp observations, and hard-earned wisdom, Sonja reveals what life inside long-term care is really like. She shares the daily struggles and triumphs of residents, the challenges of an often-overlooked system, and the deep humanity that persists within institutional walls.

This book is essential reading for caregivers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and anyone with aging loved ones. It challenges assumptions about nursing homes, exposes the systemic issues affecting care, and offers a rare, first-hand perspective from someone living within an SNF.

Strength to Stand is more than a memoir-it's a call to action for better care, greater awareness, and a future where aging with dignity is not the exception, but the expectation.