30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

1. The illnesses I live with are: Chronic migraines, depression, diabetes and occipital neuralgia.

2. I was diagnosed in the year: Migraines (1983); depression (1997); diabetes (2008); occipital neuralgia (2009).

3. But I had symptoms since: I can remember.

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Not being able to work. I certainly never dreamed all the hard work I put in getting my law degree and passing the bar would lead me to this place in life.

5. Most people assume: I don't need as much help as I really do.

6. The hardest part about mornings are: Waking up in pain every single day.

7. My favorite medical TV show is: Grey's Anatomy. But for the drama and sex, not the medicine. ;)

8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: My Macbook.

9. The hardest part about nights are: Loneliness.

10. Each day I take (at least) 19 pills & vitamins. (No comments, please) And four injections.

11. Regarding alternative treatments I: Have tried most of them and believe in some of them, especially for coping with the pain and other symptoms I deal with day to day.

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: This is hard. I guess I'll say invisible because it's all I know and because I like that I have more control over who knows about my health issues since no one can really see them.

13. Regarding working and career: I hope I'll be able to return to mine someday, but I'm not counting on it.

14. People would be surprised to know: That I'm pretty darned happy considering everything.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: Trying to redefine/discover my identity.

16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: Help people who are filing for disability.

17. The commercials about my illness: Vastly oversimplify the debilitating nature of migraines and make them seem much easier to treat than they are for some of us.

18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Practicing law.

19. It was really hard to have to give up: Working and earning money.

20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: Knitting.

21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Go to an amusement park.

22. My illness has taught me: That control is an illusion.

23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: X thing worked for my cousin/best friend/sister-in-law/wife. You should try that.

24. But I love it when people: Spend time with me and check in to see how I'm doing.

25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer. - Pema Chödrön

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: To get Teri Robert's book, find a good headache specialist and become educated about migraine disease.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: That I can be happy even though I'm in a lot of pain.

28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: Helping me clean my house.

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: I feel it's an extremely important event and a wonderful opportunity to gather information about issues people with invisible illnesses have to consider that other people do not.

30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: Grateful.

Find out more about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and the 5-day free virtual conference with 20 speakers Sept 14-18, 2009 at www.invisibleillness.com

Photo courtesy of ABC.com.

Content by Diana E. Lee.