The Girl With Arthritis

I suppose you could compare being chronically ill to being a bird in a cage. The bird wants to soar high in the sky, but the cage keeps you away. Having a chronic illness is similar: you want to soar but you're too sore. Or, you know, sick or something. It doesn't really matter what's holding you back, it's the fact something is. But the cage is also a symbol of something else: How different your life is compared to the lives of others. I forgot what it's like to be healthy. I cannot tell you what 'healthy' life is like. I assume it's a lot like life now except without pain, hospitals, missing out and planning around abilites. I also assume you fit in better with the 'healthy' world. But I don't know for sure. The 'healthy world' and 'chronically ill world' are very different. I'm always reminded how different they are by people's reactions to my 'arthritis' talk. Sometimes I'll tell them what's happe...

"How do you get a doctor to listen to you?" This is the ultimate question. The answer is so rare and secretive, that is it priceless. There is just one secret statement that will make a doctor listen and that statement is.... Well. It's more complicated than that. It's hard to believe but doctors are real people. And like the general population, their personalities differ. You're going to get along with some and you will not with others. Some people are introverts and others are extroverts. We all have our good and bad days. Doctors are like teachers: You loved some and hated some, some loved you and others didn't. And it was for many different reasons. Some saw your potential, and others passed you off as nothing special. And it doesn't mean much at times. For example, Teachers said John Lennon would go nowhere. It's the same basic idea with doctors. First, we have to realise that some people are better at listening than others. This and other p...