Learning to Adapt to Life With A Chronic Health Condition
Many of us have learned to adapt to life in different ways. Someone who is hearing impaired, uses other senses to understand the world. My daughter for instance is hearing impaired, but I’ve been told you wouldn’t know it. She’s learned since a little girl to read lips. So is hearing loss a bad thing. No, not really it’s given her the gift of reading lips.
When someone gets older and has to adapt to the world it’s harder to do. Imagine the elderly lady that’s lived by herself all her life and now she’s moving in with her grown daughter and family. This is not an easy adaptation for her. Even thought she’s with family, her entire world has changed. She’s no longer in her own space with her own expectations. She’s now learning to live under someone else’s roof with someone else’s rules. She’s bound to have a more difficult time adapting to the new environment.
So your all wondering where am I going with this all? When you get sick with some kind of chronic health condition you learn to adapt. It doesn’t matter whether its lupus, MS, or diabetes or any other health condition. Learning to adapt to a new health condition can be a daring adventure or a fight all together. Does it do any good to fight it? No, not really. Will you go through an emotional roller coaster? Yes, more then likely. Is it going to be easy? No, not really. Each condition brings its own obstacles and its own gifts. I had never thought of lupus as a gift. I always thought of it as a horrible disease. It has given me a few gifts along the way. I’ve learned to adapt to living in pain, and I’ve become really resourceful at finding ways to reduce my pain. I’ve learned that my heating pad is my best friend and that a sweater keeps me warm. My muscles don’t like cold. I’ve learned that if I don’t take my meds I won’t be able to function somewhat normal. I’ve learned that a good bath and some lavender lotion soothes the muscles that tire so easily now.
Each person has to find their own way to adapt to each health condition. Most people find that something’s that work for someone else may not work for them. It’s more of a job of trial and error. I have tried so many things along the way only thinking they will work. A lot of things I’ve found don’t work. Then there are the few things that do work, have made a world of difference. So my question to you is: How do you adapt to your life’s struggles? Will you be your own villain or will you be your own hero?
February 05 2008 09:47 am | Life with Lupus and Tips and Tricks
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Wow, you know, being gay, I learned life as all about surviving being different(as a 5 year old, it seemed from the whole world–1962)so maybe that served me well, because the moment I was DX I embraced. You must love yourself of course (that is hardd for many people)and your health condition(I have MS and had ovarian cancer) is a part of YOU. If you hate a part of yourself, not going to be good. Embrace. Look at it as a new adventure. You said it right. Life always throws some ugliness at us all, deal or die bitter and sad. I am happy. My 101 yr old aunt has gone legally blind and almost deaf, yet her mind is sharp. All her friends and siblings have long ago died. She went into a nursing home a year ago, and yes, as you stated—very hard for her, but she is adjusting. (My blog shows a conversation w/her and her sense of humor is intact.) My life has never been a rose garden, so MS is just another weed too pull. No big deal. I want to die happy and no regrets about time wasted on bitterness because I am different.