Comments | pamc: How to talk to someone who is chronically ill...

pamc

How to talk to someone who is chronically ill...

Dec 23, 2011 21:37

I complain about my health. That makes other people uncomfortable, I know. We're not supposed to talk about our health in this culture. For one, that's something personal. So personal that we even protect it by law with doctor-patient confidentiality. For two, we don't praise weakness in this culture, and admitting health problems is doing exactly ( Read more... )

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Comments 7

mysterious_echo December 25 2011, 04:25:16 UTC

There are a half dozen people on my "friends list" that I read. You're one of them. Over the years, I have read your journal and winced at how life has often treated you. We ARE a complaining species, probably the only one. But, like myself, you don't allow this cosmic anomaly called humanity to pass you by unnoticed. We're all, "Hey! I'm here and I have a problem!", not always expecting that anyone gives a shit, but hoping that on the off chance, someone might stop and sit with us for a moment and empathize with our plight; to take a bit of the edge off. It's why I continue to complain about my job. After 16 years with the same company, I feel I know it pretty well and owe it to them to say when something has gone askew...quite LOUDLY, in fact. Like you, I complain to people who understand my job, because to the layman, it's much ado about nothing. Back-tracking slightly, you have always been one of the most interesting people on my list, and I do empathize with your situation as I'm in the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis. I can ( ... )

I'll take the trite, too, please ;) pamc December 25 2011, 05:18:47 UTC

Thank you for letting me know I'm in your select few. Heh... I feel kinda guilty now since I've pretty much abandoned this place for Facebook.

Actually, I've thought about it a while and I think *most* species are complaining. All those lovely chirping birds? Yeah, they're yelling things like, "Stay the f*** away from my berry patch you thieving bastard!! YOU! Outta my yard or I will end you! OH $#!+ CAT!! FLY! FLY! FLY! lol Dogs complain all the time!

Thank you for the compliments. They really do mean a lot to me. It reminds me there's a reason to fight this fight.

I'm so sorry to hear you have RA. I know that's one of the tough ones. Rebellion is completely natural and part of the process of learning new things. Doesn't make it fun my *any* stretch. But we can get to tolerable at least...

Thank you for letting me know you're out there ^_^

Oh! And check out the blogs I've linked to through MTLA. There are a few devoted to RA that are very good.

Re: I'll take the trite, too, please ;) mysterious_echo December 25 2011, 05:30:25 UTC

I'll check out the links and look for you on FB.

Happier holidays!

Re: I'll take the trite, too, please ;) pamc December 25 2011, 05:39:24 UTC

Happy holidays to you too!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=771728793

Thread 5

taphophile December 31 2011, 18:46:17 UTC

There have been days when I wished I could have articulated the gist of this article well enough to pass out flyers to people I talk to. Very well said.

pamc December 31 2011, 18:59:22 UTC

Thank you!!! It's rapidly moving to my second most popular post... I'm so pleased with the response! Makes me feel like I'm a contributing member of society again ^_^