Invisible Chronic Illness Week Sept 9-15, 2013

12:31 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

There have been various occasions throughout my blog where I have mentioned that I am sick. I have an invisible illness. That means I am sick but it doesn't look like it. I am actually very sick, so sick that I can no longer work at this time. I can not even get out of bed on some days. I have terrible pain throughout my body and I have little energy. There are a lot of invisible illnesses out there and there are a lot of people suffering from them. The fact that these illnesses, many of them auto immune like mine, are undetectable to the eye, no one knows how many people are walking around in incredible pain and discomfort.

Those of us who have these illnesses do not want to be seen as sick so we go out of our way to hide it further. That is why there is an Invisible Chronic Illness Week, to raise awareness to the issue and just HOW BIG it is and how many people are affected by it. If I had the means I would love to have some sort of march where all of us get up and walk out into the streets. The ironic problem with that is many of us can not just get up and walk....anywhere...at all. Perhaps I will just hang a purple flag out my window. Purple is the color of Fibromyalgia. Or a blue flag, the color of Arthritis. In fact, I could probably hang a lot of colors out there. That is how my sickness goes. There are a lot of symptoms and often a lot of diagnoses. What colors have meaning to you?

The Invisible Chronic Illness Week is not only here to let people know how many of us there are but also to help understand us as well. There is a website that is full of info about how to participate as well as information about invisible illnesses and those who suffer from it. A meme has been created that allows a sufferer to share how they feel with those around them. The meme also helps us to document our progress, be it forward progress or sometimes backward. It is a series of questions to be answered. The questions can be answered annually to show changes and a continued insight into the author's journey through an unseen, often unspoken about life.

I am going to do that meme in my next blog.