The first four weeks

The first month is where the accounts are most similar to each other and least similar to what people expected. It is also where the decision to continue or not is effectively made, usually without anybody framing it as a decision.

The recurring theme is not difficulty. It is isolation: a stretch of adjustment happening between the appointment where everything was explained and the appointment where anything can be discussed, with several weeks in between and no clear route to ask a small question.

Week three was the worst of it, and week three was also the furthest possible point from anybody I could ask.

Illustrative composite

Where people describe a manageable first month, a contactable person is almost always in the account — not more appointments, just somebody reachable for the questions that are too small to justify one.