Living with a family member who battles a chronic illness is a journey marked by resilience, love, and unwavering support. In this essay, I share the personal story of someone who battles with a chronic illness highlighting the challenges we've faced, the lessons we've learned, and the profound imp...
, The photo that I believe illustrates chronic illness based on my experience is one of my
grandmother holding her robotic cat in her retirement home accompanied by her son, and my
father (See Appendix). My grandmother has had multiple comorbidities including colorectal
cancer, melanoma, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s disease which have all
impacted her quality of life in a significant way. From an impartial or etic point of view, in the
picture depicted below you will see an elderly looking woman holding a stuffed cat while sitting
beside someone whom she looks to be comfortable around. She is also holding a hair brush
which one would assume is for brushing the cats hair, indicating she must really like cats. You
can also see that she has a large growth on her forehead that may or may not be of concern to her
health. From an emic perspective, there is much more going on in this photo than meets the eye.
Only those who are directly involved with her health such as her family and healthcare team are
privy to what is really going on in this photo and what she has been through. My grandmother is
89 and has unfortunately been subject to almost all of the stages on the illness trajectory model
throughout her life. Her first major diagnosis was type 2 diabetes in her late 40’s where she
quickly transitioned from the trajectory onset phase to the stable phase with the proper oral
medication. A few years later she was subject to diabetic neuralgia which put her into the
unstable phase and was forced to make even more lifestyle changes. Another few years later she
was diagnosed with colorectal cancer which was caught early by a routine colonoscopy and was
thankfully completely removed with no other interventions or therapies needed. This diagnosis
followed a similar pattern to her diabetic neuralgia in which her symptoms were detected from
onset and early prevention and education efforts allowed her to move into the stable phase. Less
than a decade ago, she was diagnosed with stage III melanoma which is an advanced form of
skin cancer. This was by far the most impactful diagnosis she had received to date because of
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