Why do people glamorize chronic illness?
It isn’t just days in hospitals, with oxygen going into our noses and IV’s in our arms.
It’s being in too much pain to get out of bed, and the most walking you can manage is the struggle to the bathroom and back.
It’s spending all week getting the courage to take a shower, because even though you’ll feel cleaner, it’ll drain everything you have.
It’s having to sit in the kitchen, because you can’t stand for the ten minutes it takes to make Mac n’ cheese.
It’s being afraid to do things alone, because you might pass out and no one will be there.
It’s feeling absolutely worthless, because a lot of us don’t look sick, so we wonder if we should actually feel this sick.
It’s dealing with people telling us what new fab will magically cure us. “Well my friend had something like you have once, and they cured it with….”
It’s having so many people, sometimes even doctors, try to tell you it’s all in your head. So much that you start to believe them.