7:13pm September 13, 2014

➸ Hollywood has it wrong: I’m a teenager with an illness, and it’s not glamorous at all

hellomynameismaddy:

At the end of the pilot, Charlie says: “Everyone thinks that when you go to a hospital, life stops. But it’s just the opposite. Life starts.”

After hearing those words, I wanted to cry. Life does not start when you go to a hospital. If you’re lucky enough to have a non-terminal illness, life continues, in a warped version that includes more pain and obstacles than any young person should have to experience.

This article is so great. When these movies and shows underplay the physical aspects of illness - the fatigue, the pain, the way your current and future energy levels impact literally every decision - it makes it harder for sick folks like me to talk to the people around us about the realities of illness because we fear it will seem like we’re complaining. 

Freedom? Holycrap.  Life starts?  WTF?  I hate the hospital.  Like, I’ve had amazing stays in the hospital, by which I mean, the nurses are amazing and courteous and do everything to make it as wonderful as they possibly can, and same with the doctors, and everyone else, and somehow everything comes together so that everyone is doing the right thing and there’s nothing at all to complain about… and being in the hospital still sucks donkey balls.  It’s just… I can’t even explain this to people.

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