[ SECRET POST #1958 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1958 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 104 secrets from Secret Submission Post #280.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I guess because it's so damn hard for us to explain to non-chronically ill folks, especially when we have an 'invisible' disorder. I have rheumatoid arthritis. You can't see it, but it hurts me all the time, every day. It beats me up, the meds I take mean I get sick easier, have a compromised immune system and I've had the same cold for five weeks now, no joke. I have very limited energy, especially right now. And some days, I have a few extra spoons, but I never, ever have as many as someone without a chronic illness.

But when you try to explain it to someone, they look at you. I'm not very old; I was diagnosed at twenty-eight. They look at you and go, "But you're so young, you'll be fine." They expect you to keep up with them, keep up with everything, because you don't look sick. They think you're lazy because you went to work, then came home and fell into a daze and couldn't do housework or cooking or anything, because you're sore and exhausted and your mind is foggy. I'm lucky because I even can work; I'm unlucky because I have no choice, it's work or die for me and I have three people, two of them young children, relying on me for survival.

So, this silly-but-meaningful-story about spoons gives us a tool to explain to people. What it's like to always have to be aware of your limitations, and just how limited those are compared to before, when you were healthy. It gives them something concrete to grab onto, instead of abstract.

Which is why I think it's fair we should own the perfectly good metaphor. ;-)