'Thou Shalt Bear Their Infirmities': Meeting the Challenges of the Chronically Ill
About the article
Provides insight into the challenges of chronic illness for the individual as well as friends and families. Also provides a helpful list of things that wards can do to help members with chronic illness.
Quotations
However, there is another kind of illness. When this kind of illness strikes, the patient becomes ill, doctors are consulted, and the family begins to adjust, but the patient doesn’t recover—perhaps not for many months or years, or perhaps not ever.
“Almost without exception,” she said, “people withdrew from me because they didn’t know what to do or say, and rather than do the wrong thing, they avoided me. Even greeting cards would have helped me feel more accepted.