You know you have a chronic illness when...

It's Fibromyalgia Awareness Day and Lyme Disease Awareness month so I meant to have a really meaningful post for today. Instead I ended up with some sort of zombie flu (I should not have watched the Walking Dead last night, now I'm paranoid, haha). So all I've got in me today is the graphic I made pre-zombie flu that breaks down the basics of Fibro and Lyme. They might seem like two very different diseases but they have a lot in common, as do most chronic illnesses.

- Most people don't think they are real
- The treatment for each disease is undetermined giving individual doctors a lot of control that they tend to not handle very well.
- They are expensive
- They change your whole life
- They can cause depression
- The ambiguity makes getting a diagnosis difficult.
- They leave you feeling isolated and alone.
- No one, including doctors, knows enough about them.

People need to be more aware of Fibromyalgia, Lyme Disease, and many other chronic illnesses. They need to be aware for the sake of their family and friends, one of whom probably has a chronic illness, and they need to be aware in case they themselves ever come down with an illness. I want people to understand more than I did when I got sick. I had no idea what was happening to me and it was quite a shock. If I had only known more about what life was like as a sick person, I think it would have helped my transition.