Where Is My Dr. Seuss Hat?

Recently, I found this video on Youtube by a young man who was describing his life with Lyme Disease. I watched the whole thing and then watched it a second time. He's obviously very bright, articulate and his story was interesting.

He did a great job of talking about what people with a chronic disorder or disease go through. The 'hats they wear' as he puts it. I hadn't thought of it that way prior to viewing the video but afterwards, I did.

He discussed being a patient, researcher, doctor, caregiver and provider.  All of those are true but we are also wearing the hats of a 'normal' person.

* Young person still in school.
* Adult child taking care of an elderly parent.
* Husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend.
* Mother, father, grandmother, grandfather.
* Sister, brother, aunt, uncle.
* Employee, employer.
* And so many others, too numerous to list.

I've been a mom for 22 years so I'm used to wearing a lot of hats.  Any mother or father, for that matter, knows how that goes - our job as a parent encompasses so many things.  But being a sick person is a whole new ball game.  We now have to wear all of these hats while we're in pain and with far less energy and stamina at our disposal.  

We struggle to accomplish what we did before.  We want to be all that we used to be, not only for our family and friends but for ourselves.  We want to be thought of as strong, worthwhile, successful.

But as we progress in our illness, those things become harder and harder to achieve.  We become unable and the process of accepting that is emotionally and mentally difficult.  We have to line up the hats that we wear and begin picking and choosing.  We cannot wear all of them, all of the time.  And at some point, we have to actually discard some of them permanently.

For a person who is ill, it really does become a matter of survival, of taking the best care of ourselves that we can.  We are taught not to be selfish and to put others first but at some point within an illness, it's mandatory that we put ourselves first.  Once we do that, the hat we always put on first is our own.

I have included this young man's video in the post.  Please take the time to watch it.  He put time and thought into expressing a patient's view point and did very well with a tough subject.

Thank you,

Jody