{"id":1876,"date":"2015-11-14T19:25:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T19:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1876"},"modified":"2015-11-12T19:37:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T19:37:17","slug":"chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/11\/chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-two.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: Just Starting Out, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Second<\/a>As you begin to find answers to your questions after a diagnosis with a chronic illness, you and your doctor will be working on fine-tuning your condition and setting up an approach for treatment and follow-up. I discovered quickly that my life changed drastically – from social and professional appointments I went into days when medical tests, procedures, and doc appointments dominated my waking hours. It took a long time to understand all the ramifications of my diagnosis, and there were stops and starts along the way. Each person reacts to medications, for example, in a slightly different way (especially when they are combined in some treatment regimens). I sometimes felt as if I was talking with my doctors more than with family and friends!<\/p>\n

All of this, of course, can be stress-filled and exhausting. All the more reason, I found, to carefully and tenaciously guard times of rest and reflection.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite meditations in my book,\u00a0Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness<\/em>, is about using the metaphor of an athlete in training for life with chronic illness,. No better time to begin than in those early days, just after the diagnosis, when all things health come to the fore and dominate our days.<\/p>\n

Key to the image of an athlete is, of course, high performance. Being alert, ready, and fit are hallmarks of an athlete who can achieve great things. So it is with us, too, as patients – being alert to how our disease is manifesting itself so we can report symptoms promptly and clearly to our docs, being ready to communicate what’s going on with us to our loved ones and medical team (taking notes is especially helpful), and being fit for the tests and tasks we have to do to protect our health (guarding our time for rest and recouperation).<\/p>\n

We might not be athletes in the traditional sense – not able to run marathons, for example. But we do run hurdles as we take each test, each flare one by one. We do call upon inner stamina and grit to get to the end of long days. And we do use imaging of our own, thinking of what we can positively do to help ourselves be as strong as possible.<\/p>\n

Yes, imagine that! We are athletes – and we are strong!<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you begin to find answers to your questions after a diagnosis with a chronic illness, you and your doctor will be working on fine-tuning your condition and setting up an approach for treatment and follow-up. I discovered quickly that my life changed drastically – from social and professional appointments I went into days when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,360,43,1047,578,379,1245,1247,1421],"tags":[29,1948,1949],"class_list":["post-1876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-determination","category-encouragement-in-life","category-good","category-goodness","category-lupus-2","category-positive","category-rising-above-tragedy","category-take-some-time-to-rest","tag-chronic-illness","tag-illness-for-the-athlete","tag-the-early-days-of-a-chronic-illness"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: Just Starting Out, Part Two - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The image of an athlete helps us cope with chronic illness\" \/>\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\/11\/chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-two.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: Just Starting Out, Part Two - 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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 & 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\/1876","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=1876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1878,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions\/1878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}