Girl, 27, just got a nasty diagnosis. Said she’s got no kids, a job she’s not wild about, no pets and can’t afford anything on her bucket list.
To her, what’s the point of going through aggressive treatments, just to go back to work if they don’t fire her for being sick.
Naturally everyone jumped on her that she’s depressed, she’s stupid, she’s got a wonderful future ahead, that you really don’t get THAT sick, that all these wonderful mental health professionals are here for the accessing.
Then there’s me.
Let me tell you about medical professionals. They don’t return calls and they let your medication run out.
Deciding to “fight” a disease really means fighting for doctors, nurses and other staff to take you seriously. It means begging for appointments and time and pain relief.
Look, you might have luck, and I hope you do.
But even if you get treatments and they don’t wipe you out, fighting for answers, alternatives and dignity might.
Before I get diagnosed with depression by the armchair therapists in the group, of course I know you can seek new doctors. I also know each one has been more disappointing than the next.
It’s a full-time job in and of itself to be sick. You don’t just fight your body — everything is a fight. You just have to figure out the terms of the match.
What I didn’t say is I was thinking about how when I got shit news, and I told my then-employer about the news, I was let go. They were already thinking about it. Go deal with your shit.
I was thinking about FMLA for a second. Like, don’t you have the option to go deal with your shit and them hold your job for you?
Then I realized OMG do you know a single employer other than the government who has to follow laws? I mean, how many pregnant people got “laid off” in my circle under the whole “recession is coming” fear that seems to happen every couple years? You can’t force anyone to keep you employed unless you live in Europe.
I get the feeling with the poster that she was looking for people to beg her to live. Which I think came across in many of the posts. But leave it to me to say, you know what, you do you.
I had to laugh at the guy who wrote that he’s had a genetic issue since birth that’s left him hospitalized, comatose and coughing up lungs till he got a transplant. Now the’s married and hang gliding and saw Italy and shit.
I mean, yeah, he wouldn’t have gotten any of that had he given up. But I’d like to know where that magic pot of money came from. Make-a-Wish don’t cater to the over-30 set.
Anyway. Ain’t nothing wrong with trying to live as soft a life as possible. I never believed that till now.
But there’s something to be said for not being stressed out all the time.
And not, say, putting up the fight of your life, only to return to the existence that saw you neglect yourself in such a way that pushed you to the edge you will spend the rest of your days fighting your way back from.