Its Off To Work We Go

You may not know it yet, but you have a very important job to do. Now you may already have a job outside the home, but this one you will have to do on top of that one. If you are a stay-at-home parent, you still have work to do. If you are disabled and unable to work, you still have to get up in the morning and do this job. If your spouse makes enough money to support you, yup, you got it...you still have to go to work each day. In fact every morning of every day of your life, the second your eyes pop open, this job is your first priority. Oh, and it is not glamorous work. Its a hard job, in fact. Possibly the hardest one you will ever have. It comes with no training manual or DVD. It comes with hardly any physical or emotional or financial or medical support. Yes, I am not gonna lie, you are pretty much expected to pull out all the information you need to do this job from your ass, or the internet, whichever is easier for you. 

This is work you never get to punch out from, you never get a lunch break at. You are always on the clock. You don't get to take a weekend or holiday off. In fact for all this work you don't even get a paycheck! Your family does not like this job, for it absorbs so much of your life. Your friends hate this job. It has taken you away from them. Your kids don't understand your work, or why you are so different than you used to be. Often times your doctor does not even believe you enough to tell you there is a job to be done! And that it must be done by you. But despite all these drawbacks it is perhaps the most important work you have in your life. For if you don't do this job you will not be able to have a life, or do any of the others required of you. The ones you want to do. Now some try to ignore this job they have been given that they never asked for and certainly never wanted. But the necessity does not go away. Those that ignore it the most are often the ones it hits the hardest. 

So what is this extremely undesirable job you have NOT signed up for, but is required if you are to survive? It is managing your chronic illness. When one is unfortunate enough to be ill there are 2 types of diagnosis, terminal and not-terminal. I will add a 3rd on, actually. Not immediately terminal. Types 2 & 3 are what require you to do this job. And if you look at the alternative, it really is the better choice. Not like anyone had any in the matter. But you will still be traipsing around on this planet for a long time despite this chronic illness, and managing it and getting it under your control is the only way to live a life. When a person is diagnosed with the type 1 diagnosis they will most hopefully be in a position put up a big strong fight and use anything and everything at their disposal to win, stamp it out, erase it. Some are successful and sadly some are not. But why would it be any different for types 2 & 3? Why because we are given these diagnosis do we think we don't have to fight too? And use everything and anything at our disposal to gain the upper hand? Is this something in life you just lay down and take? Would you if it were a terminal diagnosis? As a doctor once told me, "You can get to livin', or you can get to dyin', but you can't do both."

Thanks for joining,

Leah