Takes Strength

I enjoy watching Chicago Med and tonight they had a man on there suffering from a severe case of Ankylosing Spondylitis. They were performing a difficult and dangerous spinal fusion to hopefully straighten his body so that he could be upright. It was a little touch and go but successful in the end. I know it is just a movie for most people but for my community and myself it is a reality. I know several people who have had this surgery because they had no choice but to. It was wonderful seeing my disease represented in a way that shows how serious Ankylosing Spondylitis. I am so tired of the organizations representing us with healthy athletic versions of us.

They also has a part where Maggie talked about Tough Guy Act, it really home for me.

She said What is it with the tough guy act, everyone knows what you are going through.

Where he replied yeah that is the problem everyone sees me as a sick old person.

Man do I feel those words to the core, society is always saying I am a burden because I can no longer work. Insurance is always saying no to the medicines I need so that way they can slowly kill me, or at least that is how it feels…

Anyway, she says something that really hit me to the core, she said she felt that she was just her illness. She used to feel as if every kind word or offer of help was out of pity. Then someone who was going through that told her that was the furthest thing from the truth, that she was the ONLY one defining herself as her illness. That my family, friends, and my community only wanted to do is support me and all I had to do was let them.

It is not weakness to let people be kind to you, it takes strength.

Today I am grateful for the writers on this show that cared enough to show the truth about people who struggle so hard to fit in a healthy “normal” society and to remind us that it takes strength.