It may be a tad strange that I title my first post with a definition, but in my experience, it is crucial (from the latin crux: the decisive or most important point at issue) that anyone enduring or trying to understand chronic illness, must fully acknowledge and comprehend the "chronic" part. Those of us who live with a chronic condition/illness/or/disease are aware that we do not have a flu or cold that we just need to "ride out;" we understand that whatever it is we may be battling will persist for a long time and/or constantly recur. What's a struggle for us, is trying get our friends and family to mentally grasp that we aren't necessarily going to "get better" or "be cured." There will be good days, which we are thankful for. There will be bad days, which we endure. And there will be awful days, which we survive.
We are running a marathon, not a sprint. Thus, the way we are cared for tends to be different than if you were to be helping out a friend with a bad hang over or the sniffles. When dealing with an extended period of sickness, we tend to value the companionship, more than the bowl of soup. We want to see the bearer of our prescriptions more than our need to take them. And anyone willing to stay by the side of one who is chronically ill, does not have an easy road ahead of them, but they are a ture blessing. A blessing that we, at times, feel unworthy of. More often than not, we cannot give back all that we are given, and that is a hard truth to live with. In some cases, we might isolate ourselves from others so we do not feel as though we are taking what we do not deserve. We know that we will be battling what ails us for the rest of our lives, but this concept can be hard for others to grasp. With the passage of time, our disease becomes our way of life - we just hope that there will be loved ones there to live it with.
My name is Morgan and I am chronically ill.
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