Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Importance of Being Useful

I went in for a lung check-up the other day and something truly unusual happened: I was quiet. Well, of course I really mean my lungs were quiet, because it was a very early appointment and my lungs are tight and quiet in the morning and get progressively wheezy and junky as the day unfolds.

I’d never had an appointment so early in the morning without an acute infection making things noisy.

“I’ve never heard you so quiet,” my doctor said. (After we’d talked about my book research, my other jobs, his grant writing, and lots of other stuff, because he’s the best.doctor.ever.)

“Ah, welcome to the morning lungs. My physical therapist always tells me I have two sets of lungs with totally different personalities, the 6am set and the 6pm set,” I said.

We moved on to other topics, but as I drove home, I thought about the many different sides there are to any illness, and any patient. I can be a wheezing, hacking, choking mess at night when my therapist arrives, but if you saw me at noon on a good day you might not even suspect anything was wrong.

That got me thinking about the days before my diagnosis, when there was only one “lung personality”—out of control. There was no chest PT, no understanding of the causes of my inflammation and infection or the complicated ways in which many of my medical problems were intertwined.

A few months ago, I wrote this post on disappointment, and the importance of writing a new script for ourselves, even when we might not want to. But I now realize that sometimes it works the other way around: sometimes good things happen, and we change our script in ways that make our lives better…but that doesn’t make it any less of a transition.

I was elated when, after months of diagnostic tests and procedures and a lifetime of serious illness, I got the right labels, the ones that matched my actual experience of illness. I was no longer the mystery lung patient, dodging whispers of supposed noncompliance and literally living on toxic doses of steroids.

But as awesome as it was, it took me some time to accept it was real, this newfound clarity. It took months for me to believe my rigorous daily regimen would actually improve my quality of life, that “normal life” could be something other than the snippets of time that occurred in between prolonged hospitalizations. I thrived in my new life post-diagnosis, but a tiny part of me, the part still fighting for self-preservation, kept wondering when things would fall apart again.

That’s not to say things haven’t been hard or my health hasn’t deteriorated, but several years later, I no longer doubt things in the same way. I’m realistic about my situation, but I also do not expect calamity to be an automatic part of my life.

I am not defined by labels so much as aware of their power to both limit and liberate. Sometimes good things happen in unexpected circumstances and you just have to let go and allow yourself the chance to live out the new script. Of course my PCD/bronc diagnosis is just one example of many, but it's the one that seems most illustrative to me today.

The other day, the always interesting and often controversial Penelope Trunk had offered this pithy bit of advice on her blog: “You should be useful to readers each time you post. It feels better. For everyone.”

That’s something I think about often when I post. So, readers, I guess the take-away from this extended anecdote is this, something I’ve said before:

It is not unreasonable to hope for good things. That’s true in all aspects of life, but sometimes when you live with chronic illness, it’s an important reminder…and hopefully, it’s useful one, too.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bigger Things

I’ve been quiet lately, which is sort of surprising, given how fired up I was in my last post on chronic illness and parenthood. Thank you so much to everyone who commented; your insights on an emotional and sensitive topic were so honest, and started up a worthwhile conversation. I actually have several follow-up posts in various stages of completion, so stay tuned.

This week I can’t quite muster up the right words and phrases to balance out emotion and reason. Partly, I am sick. Partly, I’m adjusting to a new work schedule and deadlines. But more than that, I find writing about any of that feels trivial in comparison to what’s happening elsewhere, particularly Haiti. So much of living with and thinking about chronic illness emphasizes the “chronic” part—the ongoing waxing and waning of symptoms, the long struggles to find balance.

And then something catastrophic happens, and the implications of the word “acute” are crystallized. So I’m doing less writing and more reading. My home state (Massachusetts, which is getting a lot of press given a certain recent election and its implications on health reform) is home to the third-largest Haitian population in the country, but unlike many, I do not have any personal ties.

Instead, my introduction to Haiti came from the pages of one of my favorite books, one I’ve discussed before: Mountains Beyond Mountains. Tracy Kidder’s narrative tale about Dr. Paul Farmer and his transformative work in Haiti with Partners in Health captivated me and so many other readers, and when word broke of the massive earthquake, PIH and the already struggling public health situation in Haiti were some of my first thoughts.

PIH’s Stand With Haiti relief efforthas many opportunities to help, and with over twenty years of experience on the ground in Haiti, the team knows how to prioritize needs. Tracy Kidder’s recent post on the Haiti earthquake is also worth a read.

With aftershocks still threatening and continued delays in getting aid to those who need it, there is still plenty of urgency and many professional and medical organizations mobilizing support.

Daily life continues in our world, and headlines about political upsets dominate, but there are things happening that transcend state and national politics, blog posts full of minutiae, or the Conan-Leno fiasco. Sometimes it's a matter of humanity.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Color Me Riled Up

My mother always said she could tell when I was feeling better because I had the energy to be riled up about something. Well, I’ve been free of acute infections for a whopping two and a half weeks, which is actually a December-January record for me, and it’s time.

I’ve written about pregnancy and chronic illness several times, and from different angles: can versus should, the waiting game, etc.

The decision to carry a child, use a surrogate, pursue adoption, or remain childfree is intensely personal and depends on so many variables: disease progression, diagnosis, finances, health insurance, religion, culture, etc.

I completely understand and respect women/couples who, given their particular health and life situations, decide pregnancy—and perhaps parenthood itself—is not for them. (I am focusing on this in relation to chronic illness; I realize these family-building decisions are incredibly complex absent chronic illness, too.)

But what bother me are the blanket generalizations that people with chronic illness shouldn’t have children because they will pass on their bad genes and/or because that child’s quality of life will not be what it could (should?) be if a parent is sick. I made brief mention of this in my Dear Thyroid post, but didn’t get into detail.

You wouldn’t believe where I’ve heard/seen these types of comments: cocktail parties, wedding receptions, blog comments, etc. Usually, the people talking don’t know my situation; they’re just making sweeping claims in passing about things they really don’t know much about.

Internal monologue #1: It’s easy to be a smug 20-something guy two beers into a party and say you wouldn’t marry or have children with someone who’s sick, but let’s just hope for both your sakes that your fiancée isn’t one of the millions of healthy young women who will go on to develop autoimmune or other chronic conditions during peak marrying and child-bearing years. Internal monologue #2: You are only reminding me how incredible my husband is, so thanks for that.

Inheritability is a very serious issue, but there’s a huge spectrum of diseases, from those with a definitive test for direct inheritability (eg Tay-Sachs) to diseases with a genetic component (eg celiac disease). Medical experts have told us if we decide to have children, they are not at risk of being born with PCD. As for the other diseases floating around in my family’s genetic pool, yes, there are many. But considering 130 million Americans live with some sort of chronic condition, are there really that many people who can say things like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or arthritis, which often have a genetic component, aren’t in their family history?

Want more on this? Please read an older post I wrote on genetic ignorance.

As I think about the second point, the quality of life issue, I am sidetracked by this NYT article on surrogacy. I found the article sensationalist and unbalanced, and was not surprised by many of the vitriolic comments that followed.

I don’t want to get too bogged down in a pro-con discussion of surrogacy and IVF, or the spectrum involved: one couple trying to have their biological child; egg donors; third-party arrangements, etc. But I’d like to point out that just as the majority of people undergoing fertility treatments are not Octomom, most people going through surrogacy are not 60-something, unmarried men who think it’s acceptable to bring bird feces into NICUs. (Confused? Read the article.)

In many ways, I see parallels between the mental illness issue in this article and chronic illness: who is qualified to make decisions regarding a patient’s fitness to raise children? Many people countered this article with comments like “Just adopt.” But I'm taking that phrase out of the context of the article, because it's one people with chronic illness and/or fertility problems hear tossed around so often. (Cue pulse quickening and face reddening here).

See, here’s the thing. It can be incredibly hard for people with chronic illnesses to adopt. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard that fear echoed by women with all sorts of chronic conditions. Also? Unless you’re considering the foster care system, which is a whole different conversation, adoption is often really expensive. In some states, and depending on health insurance, assisted reproduction is actually more affordable.

But more than that, throwaway phrases like “just go adopt” diminish what an incredibly emotional and difficult experience adoption can be for all parties. Yes, adoption can be a wonderful thing, but I’ve noticed it’s never the people who’ve gone through adoption who blithely proclaim, “just go adopt” like it is that easy, like it is simply a fallback plan. It’s usually the people who’ve never had to consider giving up a child or adopting one who make those comments.

So where are the in-depth, balanced, mainstream articles about adoption, articles that take a realistic (not sensationalist) look at what is gained and what is sacrificed? Why aren’t more people interested in eradicating disreputable or exploitive adoption agencies, the way we’re so quick to excoriate Octomom’s fertility clinic? (And for the record, reputable fertility clinics have this main goal: one healthy baby.)

Check out This Woman’s Work or Chronicles of Munchkinland for honest, insightful writing on the many benefits and drawbacks of open adoption from an adoptive mother and a birth mother’s perspective.

Similarly, there are those (again, usually those who have not lived with infertility) who say things like, “So can’t you just go do IVF?” And yes, many people with chronic illness can choose that route. But it’s emotionally and physically grueling (especially if you’re juggling other medical conditions), costly, and there’s also that little matter of no guarantee it will work. These are the realities patients who choose IVF accept when they make this decision, but to characterize IVF so cavalierly is really irritating.

Check out Relaxing Doesn’t Make Babies or Infertility on the Brain for honest, compelling writing about infertility, IVF, and loss. Religious and moral concerns aside (because they are many and varied, I know), can you read of such struggle and still say "Can't you just go do IVF" like it's as simple as getting a flu shot?

I have not delivered a baby or tended to the ever-present needs of a newborn while managing illness, and I am not currently in the process of adopting a child. But I am a person for whom these conversations are anything but rhetorical. I am not naïve, and as I’ve written in Life Disrupted and on this blog many times, I know that chronic illness complicates every single aspect of building a family and parenting a child. It requires a lot of planning, preparation, and yes, realism.

But to bring this full circle, let’s return to that quality of life issue. You see, this one I am qualified to speak about, because I am the child of parents with chronic illness, parents who were seriously ill when I was growing up and who continue to face challenges.

Yes, there were scary and sad moments, and yes, we all made accommodations for illness. But despite their sicknesses and mine, I had a wonderful childhood. When other kids had parents who wouldn’t let them play on travel teams or attend sleepovers because they simply didn’t want to drive them, my parents hauled us to hockey and figure skating, baseball and ballet—even when on crutches or chemo. They didn’t want us to miss out on anything. Even at the lowest points (disability and potentially terminal illness) they somehow made it work—we never doubted we were their priority, and they gave us every opportunity imaginable. Looking at things from an adult perspective, I am even more appreciative because I have a greater sense of the sacrifice involved.

So I’m a little sensitive when the topic of quality of life comes up, when I hear about how hard it can be for people with illness to adopt or hear passing comments about why people with chronic illness shouldn’t be parents. It boggles my mind the hoops people who aren’t “conventional” applicants must jump through in the adoption process, or the ignorance people who live with illness or must undergo infertility treatments (or both) can face. People who are fortunate enough to be healthy or to have no fertility problems don’t have these expectations on them, yet as we know all too well from headlines, simply being able to conceive and carry a child does not a good parent guarantee.

Some of the best parents I know just happen to have chronic illnesses. When I think of them, that is what comes to mind first: they love their children unconditionally, they put their children’s needs before their own, they give appropriate parts expectation and compassion to their children. I think of them as parents first, and patients second, and I think that reflects the way they live their lives: they are not defined solely by illness, and their children’s lives are not defined by parental illnesses, either.

To reiterate, of course there are situations where people decide their health problems are too overwhelming to add children to the mix. That’s a smart, responsible decision. But my point here is that it is a decision potential parents and their physicians should make, people with actual understanding of the factors involved.

(Cue stepping off soapbox. For now.)
 
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