What are you looking for?
Featured Topics
Select a topic to start reading.
If you are in crisis and need immediate help, please call 1-800-273-8255 (NSPL) or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line). More resources.
Twenty Things I NEVER Did in the 40 Years of Life Before Chronic Illness
8 years ago · 1 · chronic illness, +2
1528
1. Keep 2-3 heating pads AND cold water bottles on hand at all times.
2. Leave early from a graduation, concert, game, wedding, movie, church service, etc., or miss it completely.
3. Carry a purse that rattles with medicine bottles.
4. Choose a restaurant based on how quiet, calm, and/or close to home it is.
5. Call in sick to work repeatedly and finally quit so I won't be fired.
6. Worry constantly that other people think I am lazy and/or faking it.
7. Use the motorized cart in the grocery store.
8. Buy dishes that don't make as much noise when you use them.
9. Watch TV & movies on mute/low volume AND closed captioning.
10. Stop showering. Put off bathing & washing hair for days at a time.
11. Wear a ball cap inside public places or at my parents' table.
12. Stop doing the things I love most, like reading and traveling.
13. Count the pills I have left and the days before I can get a refill.
14. Pay hundreds of dollars for treatment that didn't help or made the problem worse.
15. Apply for disability and pray I get it.
16. Sleep separately from my spouse for weeks, then months, and now years.
17. Fear driving, shopping, cooking, or cleaning by myself.
18. Brace myself against the wall or sit on the floor in a store, because it's better than falling.
19. Feel proud of myself for staying awake all day.
20. Consider suicide but decide I still love my family too much to leave.
If you see a comment that is unsupportive or unfriendly, please report it using the flag button.
More Posts
-
I can't stop thinking of you
Hi G! I can't stop thinking of you, I know it's wrong. . But I really really like you! -B...
-
You can't give up, because you don't know what awaits you, just around...
A month or so ago, I wrote here under the title "15" My life I felt was never going to get better, I was to be alone forever. But sometimes you have...
You're strong. You're brave. You're loved. I already know you won't, but don't give up.
Reply