Christmas
To Go Out or Not To Go Out...That is the Chronic Illness HolidayQuestion
December 22, 2016
I want to do it. I want to go out. I want to just live.
This is particularly hard over the Australian Christmas summer period.
My memory goes into over drive as I remember lazy days hitting up the beach. Or going on obscure adventures to eat 'the best' fried chicken on the other side of the city. Or last minute New Year's Eve road trips up the coast stopping in at a roadside carnival, followed by seeing the new year in at a night club followed by sleeping on the beach and watching the sun come up on a new year.
Days of endless summer...well at least the week between Christmas and new year, where a majority of friends (sorry, apart from those serving us in health or policing or retail) get a break as the immediate world shuts down.
Yet, my body doesn't know what to do with itself these days. It yearns to be out there experiencing and living.
However, my internal alarm system is in overdrive. Don't do it. Don't waste the energy. Don't push your body through the torture. Don't do it.
Yet, life is for living. I can't stay cocooned in the foetal position in my bed forever, even though that is what my body wants, and that is what my body demands. Now, don't mishear me, I'm not about going against your body. Somedays you are stuck in bed. And there is nothing your body can do about it. And it sucks. But other days you can do a bit of stuff. And that is cool.
Yet, it's hard to figure out what you can do. How far can you push?
Life is for living...even Jesus says it... 'I have come that you could have life, and life to the full.' John 10:10.
What does my full life look like as a chronically ill individual? I feel that is a topic for another day.
What does a full life look like over the holiday period? Good question.
I feel there is a sliding scale...
A scale where you have to weigh up the event and how it will fulfill your desire for social interaction (let's call this social sanity) versus how it will affect you, your health and all the associated sickness side effects (and this shall be known as your sickness survival).
This holiday period. Where are you on the social sanity vs sickness survival scale?
Are you like me, weighing up the pros and cons of every event that you are considering missing out on? If you have a chronically ill friend do you realise the sickness survival implications that attending the event means to them. Could you modify the event to make it more accessible to them?
This scale is not exhaustive, and not conclusive for each event.
And really, sometimes, you just have to live and enjoy the celebration and deal with the chronic illness survival another day.
May your Christmas and holiday period be filled with an abundance of joy. And celebration of Life. XX
