Something most people don’t realize about living with a chronic illness is how much of it feels like failure. Not the pain. That part, I can handle. The full body aches, the stiff throbbing joints, the fatigue. That all becomes background noise after a while. A constant presence you learn to ignore best you can. But the failure? That’s harder to silence. Failure for needing to cancel plans. For taking breaks. For saying no. For needing help. It doesn’t matter how valid the reasons are, some part of me always believes I’m letting everyone down. That part is worse than the pain.
