I think I want to elaborate on my last post about depression & illness. Let's call it depression, illness & stress.
I spent many years being sick on an almost daily basis. When I was feeling good, my life seemed to have very little stress. Just the average stress that most people have; working, raising kids, school functions, is there enough money, what will I fix for supper, what will it cost to replace the car, etc., etc.
When I was getting ready to go to my first appointment with my current GI, I was feeling sick on a daily basis, and depressed. My sister was going with me to the appointment which was three hours away. Two days before my appointment the door handle on the passenger side of my van quit working from the outside. I spent a frantic day finding a place that could get it fixed right away. It was finally replaced with a door handle from a salvage yard. I was so thankful because it stressed me so much to think that Sue would not be able to open her door to get into the van. Getting it fixed before the appointment was a very major thing to me.
Jump forward several months. My new meds were keeping things on a pretty even keel and life seemed pretty good. Well, one morning while doing papers with Justin the same door handle quit working again, from the outside. I just laughed and said that it hadn't lasted long. I think it took a week or more to get it fixed. It got to be a little unhandy so I couldn't let it go too long.
During this same week I also had to take the cat to the vet. A couple other things out of the ordinary also happened that week, I just can't recall them. But, none of it stressed me at all. If it wouldn't of been for the door handle incidents I might not of noticed this. When I was sick it was a major thing, when I was feeling good, barely a blip on the radar.
That got me to thinking about other things in my life and how I handle them when I'm sick versus when I'm feeling good. When I'm sick, any change of plans really throws me. I suppose because it's going to take brain power (that's seriously missing when sick) to rearrange my schedule. A change of plans when I feel good is no big deal. In fact we all have changes of plans daily. Small things such as one store not having a product I need so I have to make a stop at another store. Most days I don't even think about those kind of things but if I'm sick it's major.
Something as small as forgetting to thaw meat out for supper could put me in a tailspin when I was sick. When feeling good, I seldom forgot things like that & if I did, it didn't really matter.
So what I'm saying is that being sick is stressful. I remember reading a book about Crohn's Disease when I was newly diagnosed. There was a chapter about keeping stress to a minimum so as not to induce a flareup. Even then, I remember thinking "but my life isn't stressful, except for dealing with Crohn's." Farther into the book I found a passage from another doctor who stated that he thought it was stressful to have a chronic illness. Bingo!I do realize there are other things that can cause major stress but I maintain that it will be much easier to deal with if the body is healthy.