Ways that chronic illness affects my daily life

[kaberett]

I hadn't realised until planning for the Greece field trip[1] that I'm dependent on the idea of co-codamol.

I mean - yes, okay, I was aware that I always made sure to pack some when going hiking, or when going abroad, or when going somewhere that I wasn't sure I'd be able to acquire any in under half an hour.

But I still hadn't realised quite how absolutely bloody terrifying I found the idea of being an hour's walk from motorised transport without access to codeine.


A few months ago, a friend asked how my chronic illnesses affect my life; the (topical) example I cited at the time was not being able to run to a rehearsal I was late for because of my exercise-induced asthma. This one's rather more subtle.

(Also of interest to me: I'm much more comfortable discussing "my illnesses" than I am discussing "my breasts".)

[1] I'm getting up at oh-god-o'clock tomorrow morning to go and look at fault planes in Greece. Unfortunately they tend to turn into rubbish dumps, because they're frequently cliffs.

Comments

[numberland]

I find the easiest way to describe the difference when you have a chronic conditions is that there is always the need to plan how to deal with them, them thing(s) always needs to be considered and checked type thing. It's possibly to unplanned stuff (sometimes) for me but only once I've checked I've got various things I need.

*armwave*

[rmc28]

Hah, yes. I carry cocodamol with me in my "go everywhere" bag, as well as the stash at home and the stash at work, and I start getting twitchy if any of them get low.

I've had to stop leaving emergency packs in the pockets of every coat since having Charles - too risky if he gets curious at the wrong moment.