I want to explain my purpose in this. This blog isn't a place for me to complain. This blog isn't a place for me to vent for therapy purposes (although I'm sure it will be helpful!) This blog is about awareness. One thing that I feel incredibly passionate about is making people aware that you don't have to "look" sick to be sick. Chronic illness of any kind isn't any fun, but it can get increasingly frustrating when you don't look sick, because people are hesitant to believe that you actually do have a serious illness. I hope that my being open about my struggles will increase others compassion towards those who face such illnesses. My other reason for blogging about this, is because I feel like God has taught me a lot through my illness and I hope I can pass that on to others.
Wishing you faith, hope and love
Stephanie
Chronic illness facts:
- 1 out of 2 people will face a chronic illness in their lifetime.
- 96% of those illness will be "invisible" which means, you cannot tell by looking at that person they have an illness!
A few facts about my illness and experience:
- It's 3-in-a-million
- Unless you know the signs to look for, you would never know it was there just by looking at me.
- Sometimes even the smallest tasks are huge obstacles for me (Is it hard for you to put on your own socks? It's incredibly hard for me, and sometimes impossible.)
- It affects the skin and muscle tissues of my body. Think about it... how much of the body is composed of skin and muscle? A whole lot.
- People with my disease usually respond in three ways: 1) They respond to treatment, the disease reaches full remission, their lives are relatively normal. 2) They don't respond, the disease is fatal for them. 3) Treatment keeps the disease from becoming fatal, but they suffer daily and never can fully reach remission. I fall into the third catagory.
- My disease was active for at least two years before a doctor took my symptoms seriously.
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