In the beginning of my illness, I didn't understand anything the doctors told me. It was Greek to me. It was a lot of information. My future was unclear. I couldn't get real answers. It was both frustrating and frightening. I wanted to talk with someone who had my specific disease to see how they lived and there were so many questions I would have asked. There was no one.
When I met Jo at the ILD luncheon, I thought she was in that same place. I offered to meet her for coffee yesterday. It was a much different conversation that what I had anticipated. She really has her act together. What I perceived as not dealing with the disease, she is handling it in her own way and, in the end, very similar to me.
I really like her. She is a strong woman. She decided not to have a lung biopsy but three different hospital groups gave her the same diagnosis. It is rather clear. She has not told a lot of people that she is ill. I really didn't understand that until we spoke. She is a real estate broker and if people discovered she is ill, they wouldn't hire her because she might not be able to see the sell to the end. I get it.
We didn't just talk about being ill. We talked about our children and our lives. She was one good mother to their three kids. Great stories were exchanged.
Before leaving, we both realized that we have not let this disease control our lives. Yes, we give it respect and we do not ignore it, but we wrap it into the texture of our lives.
She is choosing to living just fine with a bad diagnosis.
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