The Scottish author, Ian MacLaren once said “Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” (Quote). Living with an invisible chronic illness is like fighting a hard battle, it’s a fight that can take many years, and the disease may eventually win the war. Each battle with invisible chronic illness takes place in doctor’s rooms, hospitals, a person’s home, in their mind, and in their body. Someone who is diagnosed with a chronic disease puts their blood, sweat, and tears into fighting this battle, but sometimes even that’s not enough to win. There is never any winning against chronic disease and illness, even though there can be times where the sufferer waves a white flag (this can be considered denial), or sometimes the disease can …show more content…
Her warm smile, caring nature, and outgoing attitude would never make you think that she has been fighting against chronic illness for over two decades. In school she acts as a mentor helping other students, and oftentimes the only time that her illness comes up in conversation is when classmates go out together and eat, because Cindy can only eat certain foods. Although she never lets her diseases rule her life, and always remains positive, she recalls the person she used to be, someone with energy and drive, in her mind she is still that same person, but that isn’t who she gets to be anymore. She doesn’t talk much about her childhood, only alluding that it wasn’t the most positive one. Before her diagnosis she recalls being scared to death, having anxiety because she was sure her diagnosis would be cancer, and knowing that there was no way she could die because she couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her daughter behind. Cindy began to feel as if she was in denial. Every day she had so little energy that even getting out of bed and to the bathroom in the morning sapped most of her energy. Meanwhile she had to still take care of her nine month old daughter because her husband refused to stay home and help. Her daily struggle with energy, joint pain, and malnourishment continued on until her daughter was three. Since she was so sure her symptoms were the …show more content…
Relief that she didn’t have cancer and confused because she wasn’t sure what exactly he was telling her. After these initial feelings she became determined to prove the doctor wrong, that if he wouldn’t help her she was going to help herself. She began to research by going to the library to find research and books on her diseases, she recalls coming home with stacks and stacks of books on the subject, and it eventually led her down the nutrition path. Her bloodwork showed how malnourished she was, her body wasn’t absorbing enough nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. She began to look into nutrition, food, vitamins, supplements, and herbs. She began doing elimination diets and living strictly to try to figure out “if I eat this, or if I do this, how does it make me feel”. This battle went on for around three and a half years until around the time her grandmother was in the hospital. At this time she recalls feeling discouraged, she had been living and eating strictly and had yet to see any improvement in how she felt. Her cousins were concerned for her health and instead of asking how she was feeling, if she was okay, they asked an insensitive question “are you anorexic?”. She knew that by broaching the subject of what her health was like and what she was going through wouldn’t go over well. She was afraid of rejection or stigmatization if she self-disclosed to others about her chronic illness, part of this
Imagine that you have to decide which of your parents you're going to side with. Ashleigh has to make this decision in the book Ashes by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Her parents are divorced and she has to decide whether or not to steal money from her mom to give to her Dad. Her Dad wants to get the 200 dollars because he's in debt.Ashleigh would most likely not take the money from her mons tea pot because her dad is irresponsible, Ashleigh is dubious about stealing,and she doesn't want to get in trouble.
In March, by Geraldine Brooks, a mixed-race slave named Grace Clement is introduced after a young, aspiring Reverend March visits her manor to sell books and trinkets to women as a peddler. Grace Clement is a complex key character that is a controlling force in March and exhibits a symbol of idealistic freedom to Reverend March during the Civil War. Her complexity is revealed through her tumultous past, and her strong façade that allows her to be virtuous and graceful through hard times.
Although illness narratives are not novel or new, their prevalence in modern popular literature could be attributed to how these stories can be relatable, empowering, and thought-provoking. Susan Grubar is the writer for the blog “Living with Cancer”, in The New York Times, that communicates her experience with ovarian cancer (2012). In our LIBS 7001 class, Shirley Chuck, Navdeep Dha, Brynn Tomie, and I (2016) discussed various narrative elements of her more recent blog post, “Living with Cancer: A Farewell to Legs” (2016). Although the elements of narration and description (Gracias, 2016) were easily identified by all group members, the most interesting topics revolved around symbolism as well as the overall impression or mood of the post.
Barbara Jordan, who is a leader of the Civil Rights movement, once believed “we, as human beings must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” Discrimination is a topic often found in the literature and is discussed in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a documentary trailer My So-Called Enemy directed by Lisa Gossels and a short-story “What of this Goldfish, Would You Wish?” by Etgar Keret. Those who believe that accepting others from different racial backgrounds will make the world a better place; meanwhile, there are others who refuse to accept others or being disagreed with the quotes of Barbara Jordan, they think the opposite direction of the people who are agreed with the quotes. I agree with Barbara Jordan that we, as a human beings, can accept others who are different than ourselves because we are sharing a common root of the Mother Earth; thus, we can learn to treat others with kindness and respect, and be more understanding of the differences in others.
[Dr. Evil and Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz inside of the Danville’s City Hall after taking over the city.]
Being diagnosed with a chronic illness is a life-altering event. During this time, life is not only difficult for the patient, but also for their loved ones. Families must learn to cope together and to work out the best options for the patient and the rest of the family. Although it may not be fair at times, things may need to be centered on or around the patient no matter what the circumstance. (Abbott, 2003) Sacrifices may have to be made during difficult times. Many factors are involved when dealing with chronic illnesses. Coping with chronic illnesses alter many different emotions for the patients and the loved ones. Many changes occur that are very different and difficult to get used to. (Abbott, 2003) It is not easy for someone to sympathize with you when they haven’t been in the situation themselves. No matter how many books they read or people they talk to, they cannot come close to understanding.
In O’Connor’s biography written by Marcia Dinneen, Dinneen says, “O’Connor was in the hospital for 6 months. Due to the massive doses of ACTH she was given to get the disease under control, her bones were weakened and her hip bones could not support her weight and she was forced to use crutches”(Dinneen). She ended up only being able to write two hours a day, but did so without fail (O’Donnell). The psychological effect this must have had on this independent, aspiring writer must have been enormous. The Royal College of Psychiatry issued a pamphlet to persons coping with physical illnesses. This pamphlet reiterates what I stated about pain causing the person to be irritable and reinforces what I personally witness from someone suffering with an auto-immune disorder. To summarize, the pamphlet says, “…have a serious physical illness. Both the illness, and the treatment for it, can affect the way they think and feel. A serious physical illness can affect: relationships, work, spiritual beliefs, and socializing with other people. A serious illness can bring about feelings of sadness, fear, worry or anger.”
Many doctors look for family problems when trying to find the cause of bulimia or anorexia. Marya had many problems with her relationship with her parents. They definitely cared about her, but her mom and dad had problems between them which often ended up affecting the relationship between her parents and her. Marya often acted as the “buffer” between her father and mother.
Though illness is an important step in the development of the world society tends to react, oddly to illness. Whether said illness is physical, mental, or a mix of the two, people just don't know how to react to the issue of sickness. This is present in both class books in multiple ways. In The Art Of Racing On The Rain by Garth Stein one of the main characters is diagnosed with brain cancer, as a result the protagonist Denny has to deal with this in lots of ways, and it doesn't help much that when people are told of his struggle they awkwardly remove themselves from the situation. When Denny waits for the bus with Enzo and Zoë to go to school another father befriends him, but it finally gets to the point when the man asks about Denny's wife, he replies, ‘“She's recovering from brain cancer.” The man dipped his head sadly upon hearing the situation. After that day, whenever we went to the bus stop, the man made himself busy talking to other people or checking his phone,” (Stein 131). In Still Alice by Lisa Genova, the main character Alice has to resign as a researcher and professor of Harvard as she is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's. As a result all the people she worked with previously had found out and one person in particular said, “Are you sure? You don't look any different.” (Genova 184). People always tend to believe illness entails that a person will somehow look different, obviously not always true, especially with mental illness. People always expect something to be different or something else to happen and that's not always true. Another part in The Art Of Racing In The Rain Eve finally comes home from being in the hospital and Enzo interprets it as, “I didn't like any of this, all the new furniture, Eve looking limp and sad, people standing around like Christmas without presents.” (Stein 118). All these
Jeanette Walls is the picture-perfect illustration of an individual who finds righteousness for herself. She is the protagonist in the book “The Glass Castle”, who has an unfair miserable childhood due to how her parents were. Walls stands out for her determination as she goes out to the real world to seek her own justice, with the ultimate goal of being stable for once, and take responsibility for herself, not for the whole family.
She got a new disease called stenotrophomonas, which is very difficult to treat. She was becoming pan-resistant, meaning she was resistant to everything. She had a bacteria called Gram negative. This bacteria has an armor formed around the negative bacteria that makes it harder for normal antibiotics to cure it. She was left with only one option, a lung transplant. For one, it was a very risky option since her body was so weak, and two, she would have to wait until a transplant even came up for her to have. She ended up getting the lung transplant though. Two years after she came home from the operation and she is still alive, but she has to be very cautious every day. She takes a handful of prescriptions twice a day and still picks up bacteria easily. Her mom said she has gotten pneumonia twice already. Her life is now extremely difficult, but she is at least
Steindorf, O’Daniell, and Joy T. didn’t realize their psychological distress was related to their cancer experience — they had survived, after a...
Chronic illness issues can include managing their illness, the cost of taking care of the illness, etc. Many people who suffer from a chronic illness suffer a lot trying to manage their illness on a daily basis. According to a website called NCOA.org, “About 80% of older adults have one chronic disease. 68.4% of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more chronic diseases and 36.4% have four or more. Chronic diseases can affect a person’s ability to perform important activities, restricting their engagement in life and their enjoyment of family and friends”
The uncertain nature of chronic illness takes many forms, but all are long-term and cannot be cured. The nature of chronic illness raises hesitation. It can disturb anyone, irrespective of demographics or traditions. It fluctuates lives and generates various inquiries for the patient. Chronic illness few clear features involve: long-lasting; can be managed but not cured; impacts quality of life; and contribute to stress. Chronic illnesses can be enigmatic. They often take considerable time to identify, they are imperceptible and often carry a stigma because there is little sympathetic or social support. Many patients receive inconsistent diagnoses at first and treatments deviate on an individual level. Nevertheless, some circumstances require
She never thought that she actually had a problem, but one day she was at the library and she sat down at a desk that had a few books on bulimia there. She started to look through the books and found a quiz to determine if you had bulimia. She was bored and she took the quiz expecting that it would say she didn’t have bulimia, but after she finished taking the quiz she had answered yes to every question except the very first one. Her entire world came crashing down around her, and with each word that she read she became even more panicky and scared.