Thursday, September 9, 2010

Keeping things in perspective

I'm an intolerant patient.  Not intolerant with my doctors or medical staff members.

I'm learning that I'm intolerant with other Scleroderma patients.  I feel really bad about this too.  I feel like I should be more tolerant, but I am just not.

I have problems tolerating other patients that act like their world is ending.  Like they are the only ones to ever go through this.  Like this is the worst thing that could ever happen to them.  Like their doctors should be solving all of THEIR problems and that its the doctors fault when things flare up or can't be controlled.  

It's not that I don't sympathize and empathize with them.  I do.  I definitely do.  This disease sucks.  Life with it can suck.  Yes, some part of every day leaves me angry, sad, scared, or any of a plethora of emotions.  So, I completely understand patients feeling that way.

I just don't like it when they can't move past that.  When they wallow.  When they let it take over their lives.  Use those emotions to do something.  There ARE ways to make your life better.  YOU can take control of that.  So, DO something about it.

And don't make this 100% of your life.  Need to vent?  Feel free to do so.  But, find the right forum.  Don't tell every person you meet all of your woes.  About every ache and pain you have.  Do you want other people to do that to you?  I'm not saying to hide what you have.  Please, spread the word.  Raise awareness.  Just be mindful of others when you do it.

And, least of all, remember, no matter how bad you feel, how bad your day is ... someone, somewhere is having a worse day than you.  Be happy that you know what you have and you're getting treatment for it.  There are people that are still struggling with getting a diagnosis and aren't getting any treatment.

Remember you could be sleeping in a foxhole in a desert somewhere.  You could be living in a hut in Africa with no medical care what so ever.

In spite of Scleroderma, life really IS good.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're very right, someone, somewhere does have it worse. That's ALWAYS the case.

Yet it gives no one the right to tell someone else to basically stop their whining. The pain of scleroderma isn't less awful than being in that foxhole.

In fact, it's not unreasonable for someone to prefer a foxhole over a chronic disabling illness. There's some comfort in knowing you may exit the foxhole unscathed or die quickly.

I'm glad you're such a positive person and given that option, I'm sure we'd all wish to be the same (myself included) but we're not all wired that way and it's just as impossible to feel positive as it is to stop this disease.

You've not written here in years and I have some suspicion that you may have passed. If so, I'm terribly sad and sorry for your family.

This is not an attack on you, truly. Just hoping to give you - and whomever else reads this - another perspective.