For most of us, life is good … until it isn’t. Even then, generally, things get better and then worse again, then better, and so it goes. It’s a roller coaster, a smorsgasbord of pleasure and pain that we share with everyone else! Very few of us are accustomed to life getting worse, then worse, then, oh yes, worse again.
People with serious illnesses are used to this. But, that’s not me, is it?
Bad news—sometimes it is and sometimes we get really ill and don’t die or, at least, not in the short term.
That’s a good thing, right? Sure, except that it’s unusual. Everyone is familiar with getting ill, getting better, or even getting ill and dying. Few people are used to getting ill and living a completely different life with a horribly disabling illness in a wheelchair whilst life goes on as normal for everyone else for years, decades even, and then die!
I am one of the few. I live life in a peculiar limbo. I cannot live as I did. I am physically unable to. Change has been forced on me. My adult life, where I feel in control, have independence, status, and confidence lies shattered about me. I feel emotions that I remember from childhood—fear, worry, envy, anxiety, and frustration—as I try to learn to function in a strange new world. In this world, I am invisible, powerless, unwelcome, and unknowing. I have no experience of this and I don’t want it. Scary, no?
- Chronic—used of an illness or medical condition that lasts over a long period and [may] cause a long-term change in the body.
- Persistent—existing or continuing for a long time.
- Illness—disease, sickness.
- Condition—a state of existence characterized by hardship or suffering.
1997 was the year this happened to me. Things can only get better?
