Today while I was sitting in the car while my husband collected some needed groceries, I watched people as they passed by. Mothers pushed strollers. Working women popping in for some last minute goods before rushing home. Men unloading produce. 

I sat clutching a heat bag and a furry companion to my lap. 

It was 3:30pm. 

A decade ago I would have been starting my calls with the countries I did business with as they ‘came online’. I would have prepared for their day as most were finishing theirs. I would have kept working until i could do no more. 

I.T. Never sleeps and neither do many I.T.  workers. 

A decade later and all that has changed. 

Today I hear the stories of friends who are planning holidays, planning families or planning life changes; Those who still keep in touch. 

You see, most people design their lives to suit their goals and aspirations. Living here. Working there. Then moving somewhere else. Or variations on the theme. 

What most people miss as they see me sitting outside the grocery store or going to the occasional movie, is that the lives of many people with chronic illnesses… MY life anyway… Is designed around the illnesses.  Not what I want to do, but what the illnesses require, or allow, me to do. 

I am not lucky to not have to go to meetings or attend functions because it is no longer my choice. It was taken from me. 

I live the life and do the things that my body, illness and diseases allow me to have. 

I eat when/if it lets me. I sleep when/if it lets me. I go places when/if it lets me. 

It is this factor which almost all healthy people and caring professionals forget… Because they have no idea. They don’t live it. 

It is an important message that I hope  my writing and blogging will slowly deliver to more and more people as awareness grows. 

When you see someone with a chronic illness or diseases somewhere, please try and think of all the times they have not been anywhere, cancelled activities, or missed out on so many opportunities simply because we are trying to make the most with what these illness lets us have. 

I am living the life that the illnesses allow me to have. My constant hope is that  each person has more abilities than the diseases have taken away. And that the Meds of the future will tip the scales more and more in my (our) favors. 

Gentle hugs,

Trish