I Have a Chronic Illness

We don't think everyone knows what a chronic illness is.  They might have heard the term, or they may know someone who has a chronic illness.  However, they still may not fully grasp the subject.  For example, people close to us constantly ask when we are going to be cured.  News flash, we aren't, so the answer is never.  It's just something we have to learn to live with.  We will never be fully free from this condition.  We are reliant on doctors, nurses, and more medications than you can count.  Our phones can spell out medication names as well as what our conditions are with one letter.  We have good days, bad days, and straight up awful days.  At any moment our good days can become bad.  We can go out with friends somedays, but others we are stuck in bed.  We might have to cancel, we might not be feeling great.  We sometimes pretend that we are feeling okay when we really are not.
We ask that people learn more about chronic illnesses.  No one is expecting everyone to know every little detail about chronic illnesses, we just ask for a basic understanding.  For example, knowing that treatments do not equal cures.  Or that there are flares, that can happen at any moment.  We aren't asking that any one goes to medical school to know all of this.  We ask that you have patience, and trust your friend/family member/peer/co-worker/etc.  They aren't making this up.  This is very real, and it is taking over their life.  Just stand by them, and be careful what you ask.  Some topics may be sensitive, and through all of that you have to stand by them and support them.

Just remember

WE BELIEVE IN YOU!

-Nemo, Tremors, and Secret Agent Puppy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"WHY WOULD I WANT TO DATE YOU?"

Let’s be honest here, dating can kinda suck.  I mean, it is really hard to find that perfect someone when you are in college like us.  We both know that miracles do happen, but when you have a chronic illness it becomes a million times harder.  There are a lot of things that make this more difficult.  Dating is already hard enough, so when you put chronic illness with trying to find a decent human being, you have a bit more trouble than the normal person.  Here we decided to discuss our dating / lack of dating lives.  Because we know from experience that it is super hard to find someone when you are chronically ill.  Let’s just say that while we hope to find someone one day that can see our good qualities, we know that may not happen.   For many people with chronic illness it can be difficult to leave the house. This leaves online dating. Just like any “normal” / healthy person, you can find some creeps while dating online.  Let’s just say that we have met quite a few of those onli
Read more

Things Professors Have Said...

            We are both college students, and in college we have had both good and bad professors.  Some professors are amazing, while others make you want to hide in your room and never leave your bed.  Sadly, we have had a few of those in the later category.  We decided today to discuss some memorable quotes from professors in both of those categories.  We are not doing this to be cruel, and we are not including any names, or descriptions.  We are doing this to show how tough college can be for those with chronic illnesses. THE WORST:             These are some things that were said to us over the past few years.  While not all sound rude, or insensitive at first, the meaning behind them are not great.   “It’s so nice that everybody here [in this class] is healthy” The first thing you have to know about our class is that multiple people have accommodations and I (Nemo) bring a service dog to class.  We are not the only ones with accommodations, or medical problems in o
Read more

Service Dog and Medical Leave

Image
                                                                              Even though I have spent a year on medical leave, I have been incredibly lucky. This year would have been much harder had I faced it alone, but I didn’t have to. A year ago I first met secret agent puppy. The most nerve-wracking time was flying across country to meet him for the first time. I was so anxious, worried that he wouldn’t like me, worried that his trainers wouldn’t like me. I wanted this to work so badly, because I desperately needed him more than anybody knew.             I have been fighting with my conditions for the past twenty-three years and it gets tiring. There are days where it would be so easy to give up, and feeling alone while everybody else is living their life just makes the situation worse. Prior to considering a service dog I got sick enough to have to leave nursing school, move back home, drop classes in OT school, and was facing leaving school all together which e
Read more