
Try a brief walk in these shoes...
By Sami Holden — Written on May 16, 2016
Photo: The Visuals You Need/Shutter Stock

Life with chronic illness is weird.
Even though I've been chronically ill since I was an infant, I can never predict what pure amount of weirdness will be thrown at me next.
What medication side effects will I have to put up with next?
How do I help my friends and family who aren’t going through this better understand my life?
This isn't to say everything is bad. It's definitely not.
It will, however, provide you with endless unusual stories to tell. There was that one time I sat next to my best friends in a DC emergency room holding a urine specimen in my hand. Or the one time where I had to ask a medical student to be removed from my case because he had blacked out drunk on our date years earlier.
Ah yes, fun times!
There is something unique about having a life that always keeps you guessing as to what will happen next.
Maybe you’ll meet a wonderful significant other who will cuddle up in a hospital bed to watch TV with you.
I know what people will be like at my best, but what I can never tell is how they’ll be when I need to cancel plans or can’t stop crying because Prednisone is evil (yet also wonderful).
Being chronically ill also lets you into a secret special group of things only others with chronic illness inherently know — the “we didn’t choose this cool kids group.”
It doesn’t have to be serious at all times.
I think a lot of the time, the best way to cope with strange circumstances is to laugh.
I will do my best to let you in on the realities of life the chronically ill posse knows best.
(I can’t, however, get into the details of our secret handshakes and other rituals as that may go against membership rules…)
When doctors go into an in depth description of what is going on during your appointment.
Having to take medication at a social function, or needing to use some visible medical device in public.
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This article was originally published at BuzzFeed. Reprinted with permission from the author.