When you get diagnosed with a chronic illness there are some things your doctor will never tell you. Coping with a chronic illness is a complicated topic that even your friends with chronic illness may not approach. Sometimes because it’s not a “polite” topic of conversation, sometimes people think they’re the only one experiencing something, and sometimes because you just have to find out for yourself.
Coping with chronic illness- the embarrassing stuff
- Pooping can become a lot more difficult. Buy expensive toilet paper if you can.
2. Seriously, pooping. Look into the squatty potty, I’ve heard good things.
3. You will have conversations with your spoonie friends about body parts you’d never thought you’d mention to another human being. I like to send my sister a stuffed body part every time she has surgery. Because, why not?
4. You’re probably going to sweat in copious amounts thanks to the medication your doctors think will work (but probably won’t).
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5. You will be jealous of healthy people, and sometimes you’ll hate them
6. Lying around all day is not actually as fun as you think. In fact, most people find it incredibly boring.
7. Even though you know your illness isn’t your fault, you will feel guilty about being sick
8. Sometimes you will completely fall apart, but you will find a way to put yourself back together again.
9. You can live a full life with chronic illness, it just looks different than you thought it would.
The funny stuff
11. Those “relaxing” yoga poses are for gymnasts, not regular people. Everyone will tell you to try yoga, and you should, but you will probably stretch something you shouldn’t at least once.
12. You will miss things you used to hate, like work and exercise. I know it sounds like I’m lying, but I swear to you that I am not.
13. You and your heating pad will be close friends. You will go through them like a toddler with a box of candy.
14. You will have to give up everything that tastes good because everything that tastes good is bad for you. Someone will try to convince you that kale is delicious, do not fall for it. It tastes like bitter grass. Don’t put it in a smoothie either, that’s even worse!
15. Being sick will affect your mental capabilities. You will lose your thoughts in the middle of a sentence. You will try to shampoo your hair with your body wash at least once. You will leave your phone in the freezer.
16. Jeans are hell, you will embrace the wonder of yoga pants and leggings
17. Life is still funny, even when you’re hurting
The medical stuff
18. Painsomnia will be the bane of your existence
19. You will lose respect for doctors and many other medical professionals. You might even come to hate them.
20. You’re going to be told you’re crazy on a regular basis, by doctors and friends/family. You may even start to believe it.
21. Something absolutely not normal will happen to your body, and you’ll just ignore it and continue on
22. You cannot push through fatigue, it will just make you sicker
23. Because of bad experiences, you might develop doctor anxiety
24. Being sick is a full-time job. You will spend most of your energy on doctor’s appointments, yelling at your insurance company, and managing your prescriptions.
25. Getting disability benefits is practically impossible
26. Your body is constantly surprising you with the new ways it can find to malfunction.
Hopefully, I didn’t scare anyone away here, but living with a chronic illness is definitely an interesting life experience. Sometimes funny, anxiety-producing, depressing, devastating, and joyful. It brings a whole different element to human existence.
Very interesting?? One thing you forgot: You will feel as though your losing your mind when Doctors Racially Profile you and you spend a year in Bed with no MEDS to help with the Excruciating Pain???
Very true. The biases in pain treatment are real.