What is Chronic Illness Care: Why Do I Care?
Chronic Illness Care is extremely expansive but for me personally it boils down to one thing: quality of life. I focus my care on individuals with chronic illness looking for a better quality of life. But how does one achieve this?
First we must define chronic illness: “Chronic diseases are defined broadly as conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both. Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States (CDC).”
“Limit daily living” is a hard thing to wrap ones head around, especially when not dealing or having dealt with these issues. Instead of try to come up with my own metaphor I will use one known to many but not all: the spoon theory. Christine Miserandino explained to her best friend one day in a diner that giving energy out as a chronically ill patient, was very similar to rationing a very predetermined amount of spoons out. I’m sure you are confused as was her friend, however what Christine explained next changed how chronic patients describe energy usage forever. Click here to read the legendary link this lupus patient made.
I have had severely debilitating Crohns disease since the age of nine. This has led to many surgeries and countless hospitalizations. I have, because of these issues, battled with anxiety and depression since a very young age. I have been there. This is what makes me different. This is one of the reasons I care so deeply. I understand what its like to not feel you have a quality of life, to feel like you have no future.
Through all my search I have found a savior, the gym. I used it to transform my body as well as my mind. Through the discipline of the gym and the pain that it took in order to workout as someone already fatigued, gave me a sense of control. Not only did I learn control and discipline, I felt as though I was giving myself a reason to be exhausted, which I felt constantly regardless. At least when I had worked hard I had felt the exhaustion was just, not handed to me in the form of illness.
The gym will not save everyone, but discipline and self love will. Learning that is the key in Chronic Illness Care, and that is what The Scar Soldier Army will motivate inside yourself.
