A day in the life

So, when you’re really unwell, your day is quite different from a normal person’s day.

Your alarm goes off, you probably reluctantly get out of bed and get ready for work. Perhaps catch public transport and after an hour or so in the office pop out for a coffee with workmates. Attend a meeting or two, go have lunch with a friend or eat at your desk. Finish off the afternoon with another meeting, maybe fieldwork, attending training or emails.

Home time and maybe you go to the gym on the way home or get home and then meet up and play mixed netball or your favourite sport. If it summer you might go to the beach or a Friday might see you go out of a beer to two with mates.

Ok…now for a day in the life of someone who is chronically ill. In this case Sarah.

Sarah’s sleeping patterns are affected by her medical conditions. Combined with the terrible fatigue, this means she usually doesn't wake up until midday. If she gets up earlier (ie for a medical appointment) then she usually doesn’t function, can’t remember the session and it can take her a day or two to recover.

When you’re having lunch, she’s battling nausea and pain.

You can pop out for coffee, any trip outside the house causes more pain, fatigue and because she can’t regulate her temperature properly means she has to go to well air conditioned places. She has also lost a lot of friends as social situations exhaust her. She also can’t talk about what she did on the weekend and have conversations about “normal” life as she doesn't have one.