7:46am July 17, 2013

➸ chronic badass: To Love Someone With A Chronic Illness

raichaal:

(I wish I knew who wrote this… They deserve soo many hugs!)

To love someone with a chronic illness is to be a doctor.

It means helping them to remember their medications. It means driving for an hour to the only 24 hour pharmacy when your local CVS does not have the medication they need. It…

this post is really really gross & i hate it. most of these things are attributes that most long-term healthy relationships should have, like patience, consoling someone, protecting someone, not being superficial, etc. etc. also: it is not harder to love someone with a chronic illness, and to assert this is some serious internalized ableism. everyone’s got their issues. and living with a chronic illness/disability has its own special crap to wade through, but the person loving you isn’t going through it (if they are able-bodied, which i think is what this post is directed at). if you appreciate them, you appreciate them, but they’re not a better person for treating you like a human being. we don’t have to thank people for treating us like humans.

Yeah, I kept reading through that and going who does this even apply to? My friends are also chronically ill, disabled, or both. So are my parents. I can’t even think who in my life this would be.

(I don’t count staff, because they’re paid to be there. They grow to care, if they’re any good. But they’re paid, and they wouldn’t be there if they weren’t. I only know one staff who ever even kept in contact sweeter they stopped being paid, and only for a bit. It’s not the same as friendship even when we like each other.)

Notes: