{"id":115,"date":"2011-10-01T13:00:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/?p=115"},"modified":"2011-10-08T00:12:05","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T00:12:05","slug":"adrianne%e2%80%99s-reflection-on-living-with-chronic-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"Adrianne\u2019s Reflection on Living with Chronic Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Adrianne\"<\/a>
My daughter, Adrianne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I wrote the first draft of The Gentle Savior<\/em> in the winter of 2008, including the chapter about the times Jesus healed two women (\u201cThe Healing Touch, \u201d Week 3). At the time I had no personal experience with chronic illness. The following summer, my daughter Adrianne, who was 16 at the time, came down with mono. Although blood tests say that the mononucleosis virus itself is no longer in her system, her body has never recovered.<\/p>\n

As is the case with a significant number of other young ladies who contract mono, she has since been plagued with chronic fatigue syndrome and also\u00a0POTS (a circulatory disorder that causes blood to pool in her extremities). Even though these are not\u00a0 life-threatening illnesses, she endures a daily struggle against pain, shortness of breath, lack of energy, frustration, and depression. We can certainly better empathize now with the chronically bleeding woman of the Gospels who spent all her money going from doctor to doctor in search of a cure.<\/p>\n

Adrianne, now 19, is hanging in there, fighting her way through her second year of college. I asked her to share a little with you about where she is at this point. If you have experience chronic illness of any kind, I hope you\u2019ll share your experience with us.<\/p>\n

***************************<\/p>\n

Chronic illness is so debilitating. After visiting doctor after doctor trying to figure out why I felt so bad all the time, I was finally lucky enough to find a nationally known specialist who diagnosed me with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and POTS. It was a huge relief just knowing that a medical professional believed me and that my symptoms were real. But my relief was followed by the disappointing news that there is no cure, little known about the cause, and treatments improve life only in some patients.<\/p>\n

So I live on with this illness. It is so easy to envy the lives of others who can multitask and have full days of activity without becoming completely exhausted. It is easy to be angry at myself because I know what I should be able to do, what I used<\/em> to be able to do. In a culture where such value is placed in a person\u2019s ability to \u201cgo, go, go,\u201d being unable to keep up is emotionally devastating.<\/p>\n

It has taken me three years, but I am finally seeing a light in all of this. First, I found a book on CFS that helped me realize that I needed to accept my life with this sickness instead of always comparing it to how it used to be. As simple as that sounds, it was freeing emotionally and has reduced some of my frustration.<\/p>\n

Second, a friend who had CFS a number of years ago pointed out that what she held on to and put her hope in was that God was there with her through every pain and every moment and that he had a plan for her. I may have my questions about God, but I do believe those two things and can hold on to them. I also know that this friend has helped me so much, and I hope to be able to help others and because of this have more sympathy for others who suffer.<\/p>\n

I still struggle every day, but I hold on to hope, joy in life, and my loved ones who support me and comfort me. They are irreplaceable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Adrianne Bell<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote the first draft of The Gentle Savior in the winter of 2008, including the chapter about the times Jesus healed two women (\u201cThe Healing Touch, \u201d Week 3). At the time I had no personal experience with chronic illness. The following summer, my daughter Adrianne, who was 16 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegentlesavior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}