{"id":1592,"date":"2015-03-12T21:59:26","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T21:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1592"},"modified":"2015-03-07T22:16:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T22:16:37","slug":"chronic-illness-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: Waiting?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last time you went into a bad flare, did you wait to go to the doctor? Wait until someone said, &#8220;Gee, you really don&#8217;t look all that good.&#8221; or, worse, &#8220;I&#8217;m taking you to the doctor NOW! you&#8217;ve waited too long!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I know lots of people who don&#8217;t like going to the doctor. And, I know it&#8217;s becoming harder to get in immediately to see someone &#8211; anyone &#8211; in a physician&#8217;s busy office. But there&#8217;s having to wait and having to wait. There&#8217;s being prompt to note when your body is telling you, &#8220;We need help,&#8221; and being averse to seeing your doctor because&#8230;why?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve heard some people say they don&#8217;t want to go to the doc because they &#8220;know what he or she will say,&#8221; and what the course of treatment will be. Of course, if this is the case, if someone already knows he or she needs to be seen and treated, then waiting seems like it could be potentially dangerous (putting off treatment might make the situation worse, not better). I&#8217;ve also known people who will hesitate to call the doctor because they don&#8217;t want to take the time and effort to get ready, go in, and, potentially, have to wait in a crowded waiting room. But, if we don&#8217;t take care of our health first, how will we have the quality energy and attention for the things we love to do, and the people we love to share them with?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there are lots of reasons we could come up with in order to delay calling our doctors. But truly, are any of them good reasons, given the circumstances and the potential worse effects that might come by putting off the inevitable?<\/p>\n<p>One more thought: If your loved one has already said something to you, or if you know they&#8217;re on the verge of it, you can greatly ease their stress and help them feel better, too, if you seek the help you need.<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last time you went into a bad flare, did you wait to go to the doctor? Wait until someone said, &#8220;Gee, you really don&#8217;t look all that good.&#8221; or, worse, &#8220;I&#8217;m taking you to the doctor NOW! you&#8217;ve waited too long!&#8221; I know lots of people who don&#8217;t like going to the doctor. And,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,1047,578,1245,1421],"tags":[29,1593,1592,1591,1590],"class_list":["post-1592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-positive","category-take-some-time-to-rest","tag-chronic-illness","tag-hesitating-to-get-help","tag-loved-ones-and-your-illness","tag-waiting-to-call-the-doctor","tag-wiating-to-seek-help"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chronic Illness: Waiting? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: Waiting? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The last time you went into a bad flare, did you wait to go to the doctor? Wait until someone said, &#8220;Gee, you really don&#8217;t look all that good.&#8221; or, worse, &#8220;I&#8217;m taking you to the doctor NOW! you&#8217;ve waited too long!&#8221; I know lots of people who don&#8217;t like going to the doctor. And,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-12T21:59:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-07T22:16:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chronic Illness: Waiting? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chronic Illness: Waiting? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"The last time you went into a bad flare, did you wait to go to the doctor? Wait until someone said, &#8220;Gee, you really don&#8217;t look all that good.&#8221; or, worse, &#8220;I&#8217;m taking you to the doctor NOW! you&#8217;ve waited too long!&#8221; I know lots of people who don&#8217;t like going to the doctor. And,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2015-03-12T21:59:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-07T22:16:37+00:00","author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html","name":"Chronic Illness: Waiting? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-12T21:59:26+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-07T22:16:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-waiting.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chronic Illness: Waiting?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain &amp; Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions\/1593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}