2:08pm May 27, 2014

“Real illness is rarely like that. Sometimes even successful treatment doesn’t cure you; it just makes life go from ‘Star Wars Episode I-level awful’ to ‘Star Wars Episode III-level bearable.’ Sometimes illness doesn’t teach you anything, or make you a better person. But because so many of us rely on the quick and/or life-affirming versions of illness we’ve seen on television and in movies, we tend to discourage real-life experiences when they don’t match up. Cancer sufferers discover that people don’t want to listen when they express understandable feelings of anger or depression, because everyone expects people with cancer to be strong and courageous so that we can repeat their uplifting stories in email forwards. People who are sick for years might find that friends who were understanding at first gradually start to drift away, as if they’re thinking, ‘Didn’t you have surgery already once? Isn’t that story arc over yet? For God’s sake why aren’t you doing a fun run?’”

5 Things I Didn’t Know About Health Care Until I Got Sick (Cracked) - C. Coville  (via blue-author)

YEP.  Injuries, disease, and illness - “what doesn’t kill you… sometimes, just wrecks you”.   For some things, you just get to hold on and that’s about it.

(via bankuei)

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