Sick and Tired, Us Too

Sick and Tired of You Being Sick and Tired

            When a person first becomes sick, everyone gathers around them and offers all types of support. It is almost like how when someone dies, everyone is there to take care of their family but it the person is added into the mix. You receive a lot of sympathy at the start of the process, and a lot of I’m so sorry and what can I do to help. You’ll get cards in the mail that so sweet and meaningful, your caretakers will get cards and food and they will be loved on too. There is a great deal of the sentiment “we hope you get well soon.” Which is nice thing to say but with an autoimmune disease there is no cure and not getting well at all. For the first little bit, this varies from person to person, they will cut you slack when you have to cancel plans, they will be understanding, and they will continue to call and ask you to go out. 

            Guess what? That quickly dies off literally. They stop inviting you out, they stop including you because you have said no too many times simply because of your illnesses and you hated every no you gave because you so wanted to go and so wanted to be included. The cards will stop, they calls will stop, your caretakers don’t hear from anyone any more, the food stops, and you are isolated yet again. If you have cancer then it all continues because cancer you can see. You see the pain and suffering; you have heard from television to movies to music just what cancer can do and what it does do to those that have it. You rarely hear about our diseases unless you watch a television show or movie about medicine and they always have some rare disease which miraculously they somehow either cure or the person gets so much better they are able to live a normal life again. 

            Ah the fiction of Hollywood, isn’t it great? I have seen almost all my rare diseases portrayed in television shows or in movies and frankly it pisses me off because there is no cure and we don’t suddenly get up and get better because we ate a salad like the little doctor on screen told us. It is so frustrating to live this life and see it diminished to an hour-long segment. I don’t want you to think I am not saying cancer is terrible because it is and it portrayed as that very accurately in Hollywood but it portrayed in a realistic manner whereas my diseases are not! There a million of fundraisers for cancers but hardly any for any of my diseases. Yes, I know you are thinking well then get off your butt and do one. That is great in theory but being as sick as I am how am I supposed to do that? There are a few here and there but they don’t ever get the national or international attention that they should. 

            See once our condition is ruled as chronic people are confused as to why we aren’t getting better. They aren’t understanding the pure definition of chronic, meaning it is never going to get better, we have this for life. It is not like cancer there is not a cure and there is not medicine that can help cure us, we have to live with this until we die. People get frustrated and get impatient at this point with us. They gave us grace for the first little while, they brought us food, they sat with us, they called us, wrote us, and invited us out now they are tired of us being sick all the time. They ask why we aren’t trying harder, why we aren’t doing this diet or that diet, why aren’t seeing this specialist that they heard of through their second cousin twice remove’s aunts’ son’s girlfriend. They don’t get it! They want you to be you again and go back to the person you used to be. Well, we aren’t that person, we will never be that person again, and we can’t help it! 

            People get so tired of us being tired and sick. They just stop dealing with us all together. They write us off because we had to say no one too many times for their liking. They feel like they did their part at the start, they called us, they brought the food, they did the things so now why aren’t we better and why aren’t we back to “normal!” People are so tired of us being so sick, but they don’t stop and think that we are sick and tired of being sick and tired and being left out. We would love to just get over it and move on with life, trust us! People don’t seem to care enough when dealing with autoimmune diseases that we don’t like this either. They don’t realize that we didn’t choose this, we didn’t cause this, and we hate more than they could ever comprehend. So yes, while they are sick and tired of us being sick and tired, they don’t stop to think about us…….