A day in the life of chronic illness: Animated Version

A couple of days ago I saw a really cool blog post on the diagnosis process (which is extremely long and frustrating) of dysautonomia. It was hilarious and made me laugh a lot. So I thought I would do one on the typical day of someone with a chronic illness for a little bit of education (for those that think all we sick people do all day is lay in bed and collect our disability checks) and a little bit of humor (for those of us that know that's not all we do all day).

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy writing it :)

So first your alarm goes off, or you wake up on your own and you have no idea what day it is, what time it is, or where you are, and you just kind of look around the room a bit and get your bearings.

Then  you decide you want to try to stand up and go to the bathroom and you feel dizzy, and nauseous, the whole room is spinning, and you just know it's gonna be another one of those days.

You finally make it to the bathroom and get in the shower. You are already running low on spoons so you don't even have the energy to take your clothes off or stand up, so you do this: 

Then you make your way to the 1st doctors office and get your IV fluids (which takes 4 hours by the way) and you "drink" it all up to the last drop: 

Then you go to physical therapy and work oh so hard:

Then you have to go to another doctor to figure out why your head hurts so bad and they pretend to listen, then give you a shot in your bum: 

Then you get told to go home and lay down and sleep it off, but you can't because you still feel sick and now your bum hurts so you channel surf: 

Then you try to eat dinner, and you think you're hungry: 

Then you find out you're really not and still nauseous: 

Then you try to walk to your room, but pass out on the way because you just ate and eating makes you pass out: 

You finally make it to the bathroom, lay on the floor, and make this face for a while: 

Once you decide you are ok enough to get to bed you toss and turn for a while: 

Then you realize you aren't ever going to sleep, and start this: 

Then you finally doze off, for a couple of hours and are very happy: 

This draining day doesn't include all the pain, dizziness, nauseousness, sweating, or racing heart that happens 24/7 and makes you feel like this: 

and this: 

but you manage to put a smile on, even though this is what you're saying in your head: 

Because you know you have to do it all again tomorrow, because this is your life, and you better embrace it, and laugh at it, or else you will be sad all the time, and it's so much better to be happy, even if you do feel like crap. So put on your big girl panties and get ready to do it again tomorrow, because you are special, and you can do this. :)