Anyone ever have some non understanding person ask you "What are your long term goals in life? Where do you expect to be in five or ten years?"
Goal? What's a goal? This disease has long ago crushed all my hopes and dreams for my life. My "goals" are to simply get through each day and do what I can that day. And if I can't do whatever it is, I try to get it done on another day.
I've been forced to live each day as it comes. There is no planning for the future because I never know what will happen. I don't know how I will be from day to day. I can't make real plans. I always end up canceling. I can't guarantee anyone that I can be anywhere on any given day. And if I have to be someplace that I cannot get out of, I end up in terrible stress, which can trigger a flareup or setback. Any type of appointment can stress me so badly that I end up ten times worse.
Chronic illness completely changes any goals you ever had, particularly this chronic illness. Other diseases, you might still have some hopes and dreams and goals to reach for, but this one..........there is no treatment. It's not like I can go for infusions or radiation or whatever and even falsely believe I am "fighting" it or I will "beat" it. Usually, even if it's false hope, you can at least feel you are doing something to fight your disease. We have no treatment, so there's no goal there to fight with.
People with CFIDS/ME are left to their own poor devices. We are left out in the cold to attempt to make ourselves better by any means we can, which often leads to real poverty as we lose our money in the attempts. We are forced to try alternative medicines, anything we can come up with. We visit quacks, we try snake oil, we pray to any saint we can come up with. We will often out of sheer desperation try all kinds of crazy things that we would never normally do in an attempt to get well. And mostly, we end up being worse for the wear at the end of it all.
So goals? Really? Just getting out of bed and making something to eat can be a huge, monumental goal with this disease. Taking out my garbage is a giant goal for me. I actually count the steps down the hall while I'm doing it. There are over twenty, but I lose count at about twenty.
I just wish people would get a clue as to what chronic illness really means and stop asking me stupid questions. I don't know where I'll be in five or ten years. How should I know? I don't know where I'll be in ten days from now. I haven't got a clue.
Goal? What's a goal? This disease has long ago crushed all my hopes and dreams for my life. My "goals" are to simply get through each day and do what I can that day. And if I can't do whatever it is, I try to get it done on another day.
I've been forced to live each day as it comes. There is no planning for the future because I never know what will happen. I don't know how I will be from day to day. I can't make real plans. I always end up canceling. I can't guarantee anyone that I can be anywhere on any given day. And if I have to be someplace that I cannot get out of, I end up in terrible stress, which can trigger a flareup or setback. Any type of appointment can stress me so badly that I end up ten times worse.
Chronic illness completely changes any goals you ever had, particularly this chronic illness. Other diseases, you might still have some hopes and dreams and goals to reach for, but this one..........there is no treatment. It's not like I can go for infusions or radiation or whatever and even falsely believe I am "fighting" it or I will "beat" it. Usually, even if it's false hope, you can at least feel you are doing something to fight your disease. We have no treatment, so there's no goal there to fight with.
People with CFIDS/ME are left to their own poor devices. We are left out in the cold to attempt to make ourselves better by any means we can, which often leads to real poverty as we lose our money in the attempts. We are forced to try alternative medicines, anything we can come up with. We visit quacks, we try snake oil, we pray to any saint we can come up with. We will often out of sheer desperation try all kinds of crazy things that we would never normally do in an attempt to get well. And mostly, we end up being worse for the wear at the end of it all.
So goals? Really? Just getting out of bed and making something to eat can be a huge, monumental goal with this disease. Taking out my garbage is a giant goal for me. I actually count the steps down the hall while I'm doing it. There are over twenty, but I lose count at about twenty.
I just wish people would get a clue as to what chronic illness really means and stop asking me stupid questions. I don't know where I'll be in five or ten years. How should I know? I don't know where I'll be in ten days from now. I haven't got a clue.
