Re: Family Opposition Rather Than Support

BBQ,
I don't know what to say except, people have just finally believed me after this last year or 2 and I have been sick for I guess around 8 years now.

When I first started getting ill, but could still work and function, I had my sister and roommate saying i was a hypochondriac. They said I spent too much time on the computer researching illnesses that I did not have. I knew something was really wrong but had no clue at that time what was going on with me. One day on the computer I felt myself passing out and screamed out to my sister to call 911, luckily at the time I was IM'ing someone online and was able to quickly type to them to call 911 too, because I passed out and fell out of my chair, my sister would not call the ambulance and rolled her eyes at me. The funny thing is I have never been a liar or known as one in my family and she treated me like I was. If it were not for the guy I was chatting with online, I would not have had anyone to help me.
I"m actually getting really upset thinking about this all over again, and mad at my sister. I thought I forgave her, so I guess I have not since this is bringing all of these feelings back.

I ended up moving and was in my own little place and was calling the ambulance just about every day from passing out or my body going numb on one side (hypoglycemia although I had no idea that is what it was at the time) and had family next door to me. Well, they weren't the least bit helpful, they would a lot of times not even come get me from the hospital in the middle of the night, and leave me stranded there with my child (I wasn't married or living with my husband at that time). Luckily there was this one guy I could call on and he would come get me. But my own family, no.

I was told by the doctor at one hospital she thought I had MS. Then I moved to another city and was having the same problems, and had friends getting ticked at me and my husbands friends, they were saying that I wasn't trying and being social, except I could not be social because I was so sick and scared all the time and had no idea what was happening to my body, I was a walking anxiety factory. Eventually a few of my husbands friends didn't like me anymore. This really hurt me, they didn't like the fact that I didnt' finish my education and that I could not work, and wasn't social.

I was planning on going back to finiish my education but I was so sick all the time, all I could think about most of the time was how incredibly ill I was all the time.

My husbands family also became turned against me, thought i was ruining his life I guess by my lack of education. Everyone in his family is well off, and my husband was struggling because my health was costing him so much. Man I'm getting ready to cry writing all of this.

My own family upset and wondering why I wasn't working or trying harder, and I would tell them I can't work, but they didn't buy it. Rumors of me being lazy and all kinds of things circulated. This is just the condensed version, there was so much more.

I was in and out of the hospital almost every day because I had no insurance and was constantly going to the ER. I was told again by another doctor they suspected I had MS again, but then for whatever reason they changed their mind and did not do the tests to find out.

I really just wanted my mom at that time to come and take care of me but the support from her was not there either. I mean she flew down to help out for a little bit but that wasn't enough.

I could sit here and go on and on about the different hurtful things that people said to me or how they treated me but let's just say that you are not alone in how you are being treated. People are not perfect, they do not usually have the capacity to be kind and empathetic. They usually need to be going through something in their own lives or to know about the illness in order to treat you in the way they should. I try to keep this in mind when I get upset, and it helps.