Today's blog post is about being unwell as well as coping with the Chronic Illness. Being poorly adds an extra challenge to the body when you're already suffering from Chronic Pain and Fatigue. This post aims to explain why those who are Chronically Ill find it harder to fight normal illnesses.
Those who have Chronic Illnesses often have a weaker immune system because their body is constantly trying to fight something; this means that when they get sick with a virus, bug or infection, their bodies find it harder to fight it off and they do not have as much energy to fight it. It can also make the Chronic Pain and Fatigue symptoms worse.
Currently, I have a cold and to anyone else, this may not seem like a big deal. But to me, it means my energy is really low and my transient pain throughout my whole body is a lot worse. My body is tired of fighting my pain and a cold, so I have very little energy and my Chronic Abdominal Pain is worse because I don't have as much energy to fight it as usual. A few Paracetamol cannot help to ease the symptoms as my body has become immune to these painkillers.
To explain why a cold, infection, virus or other illness affects Spoonies more than those who do not suffer from Chronic Illness, I like to use this metaphor...
I like to think my body has a little army of men who are there to carry on with normal bodily functions and fight pain and illness. People without Chronic Pain or Illness have a larger army than those who do. So my army is split into two groups: normal bodily functions and movement, and fighting pain and illness. The army that fights pain and illness focus on keeping my pain levels down to a minimum on a normal day, however when I become ill with a cold or bug, these men have to split up so that some can go and look after the cold symptoms and pain and some stay with the usual chronic pains. This means that there is less man power to look after the chronic pains, and therefore that pain is worse, and there aren't as many men as there should be helping to fight the cold so it takes longer for them to get rid of it. On really bad pain days, or days when I am ill, sometimes men from the normal bodily functions army come to help fight the pain and illness, but in turn this means there are less men helping with the bodily functions and I cannot do things as well as I could.
This metaphor also helps to explain why I get so fatigued during bad pain days or when I am ill, because the army has to work a lot harder to keep my pain down and this tires them out.
For those who do not suffer from Chronic Illness, but may know someone who does, please understand that our pain and fatigue can become so much worse when we are ill, and please do not think we are over reacting when we say we can't go out or do certain things because we have a cold.
We are always trying our best.
And to my fellow fighters: I understand.
Please leave any comments or suggestions, they are very much appreciated:)
Love and Spoons,
Allie x x x
