Chronic – (noun) (1) a short medical word that really means “always” “forever” and “we don’t know why”

Autoimmune – (noun ) (1) Your body is doing something that they [doctors] can’t fix and they don’t understand. And it won’t stop. On the outside you can’t see what’s going on that’s why it takes years for anyone to believe you and most won’t. See also depression. 

Specialist – (noun) (1) someone who had heard of your illness but doesn’t understand any more than the last 10 doctors. see also depression and marketing opportunity.

Health – (noun) (1) that thing you wish you had and its heart breaking when you see others have it and take it for granted. (2) a word also used to sell products.

Family – (noun) (1) Anyone not related to a sufferer by blood who has come to accept you as you are, without expectation and cruel remarks. (2)  usually found after you become ill and they are often sufferers themselves.

Coping – (verb) (1) Anything you do to get through a 24 hour period and whatever happens during that time. It will often be dependent on what you can do. This changes hourly. Ie. I am ‘coping’ at the moment but that might change in an hour.

Holiday – (noun and verb) (1) Often it is the thing we keep dreaming of and we imagine doing all the things we miss out on throughout the year. But they are rarely achievable or affordable with a chronic illness. Like a hope it a dream. Usually sufferers think about these things to help cope with a flare or some stressful event.

Depression – (noun) (1) this word has many uses in the medical world and by people who know you and feel an urge to be dismissive of your illness/ pain. ie “you are probably just depressed and need counseling…” Or “you are so depressing that it’s making you sick. You need to snap out of it!” (2) It is also a very real side effect from having your life taken away from you, but no healthy person will acknowledge or understand it. Most chronically ill people will never reveal their true emotional wellbeing for these reasons.

Pharmacy – (noun) (1) the place you know better than your own home. Sufferers will come to consider these places in the same way as your bedroom, your bathroom and your pain relief / Meds.

Partner / Husband / wife – (noun) (1) the human equivalent of a deity. Rare human beings that are capable of doing and enduring things that other mortals are incapable of.

Autoimmune sufferer – (noun and verb) (1) rare human beings that are able to endure things that other mere mortals are incapable of whilst looking like anyone else. Often found in bed, doctors office, alone, on computer, in hospital, in pain, hiding pain, crying when no one is around, cheering other sufferers up, trying to cope. (See coping)

Mobility Aid – (noun) (1) any device or aid that can help you get the toilet, shower, bed, feed the dog (see companions) or shop without falling or dying.

Dog / cat / pet –  (1) Any member of the animal kingdom that has accepted you and loves you as you are. Often referred to as family or companion. Often preferred to as company as they never feel the need to judge you, look down on you, offer unsolicited advice or make you feel worthless. (2) Sufferers will have more pictures of these precious souls than human beings. (3) One if the most important survival AIDS to the sufferer and more effective than any current medication on the market. See also Companions and true friends.

Autoimmune Medications – (1) any medication that sufferers live for, search for and pray will assist them in their everyday battle for a life. See placebo. See lotto odds. See opiats. See toxic chemicals. See depression. 

Flare – (noun and verb) (1) any event that reduces a human being to the state of near vegetation and begging for death. (2) A painful and prolonged event with unknown duration and cause.

Autoimmune Disease – (noun) (1) a collection of diseases that is medically bewildering and socially stereotyped and misunderstood. A physical affliction that causes your immune system to attack your own body. The cause of which is unknown and therefore subject to ignorance and suspicion. (2) a popular way to sell products and potions to the general public in the belief that they are ‘cures’. (3) a life changing event the equivalent of a frontal lobotomy. (4) a condition that renders the sufferer to an unknown and unpredictable fate. (5) any one of over 100 known and documented diseases that no one will remember, pronounce or research other than the one diagnosed. (6) an online community consisting of over 100 million people yet most healthy persons will try to deny existence of.