Changes with Chronic Illness

Yesterday I read an article in the Boston Globe about how young adults with a chronic illness who go off to college, now have to learn to cope with their ailment with out parental support. I read it with a bit of cyniscism (okay I can be a bit of a cynic these days). Horrors to Murgatroyd, their mommies and daddies aren't there to make sure they take their pills/check their blood sugar/go to the doctor without a helicopter parent. Okay, I am a real cynic.

Cynic or not, I do get the point. If you develop a chronic illness as a child, your parents help cope and plan how to treat the ailment. You are cushioned from the realities of being 'sick' until you reach adulthood.

But as an adult, your world is turned upside down with your diagnosis. Here's an example. I hate needles. I really hate needles. I can't look when there is a needle near me. I can't watch TV ads or news reports on the importance of getting a flu shot. Now I have the joy of getting shots twice a week. (My husband has to do them and I close my eyes.) I also need blood work every eight weeks for my RA treatment (checking for liver damage from RA meds). And I need blood work a few times a year for my (lack of) thyroid. I really hate needles.

This to me can be just as distressing to have needles stuck in me and are an uncomfortable regular reminder about my health issues. My husband is nice to me about it. He tries to make a joke about giving me shots.

Adults don't have the luxury of someone to hold their hand through all their medical diagnoses so they have to learn to cope on their own. Honestly, I think that young adults who have been coping with an ailment since childhood are probably in pretty good shape to manage their health because they have always been that way - they don't know how to handle a healthy body because their unhealthy body is their 'normal'.

I say let the college students have a chance to stand on their own two feet before swooping in and double checking on them. They need to learn to take care of themselves as any adult does.

What Is A Chronic Illness?

So I blog about chronic ailments but what are they really? Medicinenet defines them as:

"A chronic disease is one lasting 3 months or more, by the definition of the U.S.National Center for Health Statistics. Chronic diseases generally cannot be prevented by vaccines or cured by medication, nor do they just disappear."

I saw another definition which defined them as one lasting a year or more. (But it doesn't really matter because they all suck.)

Just to be clear an 'acute' ailment will appear and leave. A 'terminal' ailment does you in.

Once you get a chronic illness, you are screwed. Cancer is now treated more as a chronic ailment than a terminal one - if it doesn't do you in at first and you get through treatment, you are monitored for the rest of your life. So if I count those in, I have four chronic ailments. Plus my bad back - it fits the definition of chronic ailments but I'm not sure it is really considered one.

Having chronic illnesses means you have to alter your life and lifestyle permanently. It can be very frustrating, depressing, anxiety inducing, and down right stressful. The emotional strain of having a chronic illness can actually be the worst part.

As always, your emotional side is just as important your physical side. If you wake up on a 'bad day', you just erase your calendar for a couple of days so you can take care of yourself somehow. And that lunch date that you were really waiting for is out the window. Bummer. An emotional let down - something fun that you wanted to do is gone. And so the emotional roller coaster takes a nose dive, again.

And you wonder why so many people with chronic illnesses are often taking anti-depressants. Along with a million other medications. I have three drawers full of prescription bottles that I dig through weekly to fill my pill box - the kind with a big compartment for morning and evening.

Anyway, having a chronic illness or four can just suck.