When a loved one is sick:
- Distraction – a good response to suffering
- Am I really a ‘caregiver’ (and what does that mean?)
- Can Joy be chronic too? (Resource!)
- How to love children with chronically ill parents
- Watching is dangerous
- Watching saves us
- Watching changes the world
- Watching changes nothing
- Watching is a privilege
- 7 reasons why watching someone suffer is the worst
Sharing about Watching
- Why my blog will never go viral
- How this blog came to be
- The problem with chronic illness and social media
- Thinking about chronic illness: why it’s hard
- Talking about chronic illness: why it’s hard
Wider Watchers and your support network
Watchers we are not..
- We cannot be everything (Watchers We Are Not… MASTER LIST)
- What if they don’t understand (We are not DELEGATES)
- I’m fine, don’t worry about me (We are not SAINTS)
- Is it wrong to want a cure? (We are not DOCTORS)
- How to write about Chronic Illness (We are not BIOGRAPHERS)
- But I have so much experience! (We are not EXPERTS)
- Oh, woe is me! (We are not VICTIMS)
- Loving a sick person is too hard (We are not IMPARTIAL OBSERVERS)
- Abracadabra! (We are not FAIRY GODMOTHERS)
- Why you shouldn’t be like Jesus (We are not SAVIOURS)
After the diagnosis:
- After a diagnosis: why do I feel numb?
- Wait! I feel guilty
- The one rule to survive a chronic illness diagnosis
- Distraction: a good response to suffering?
Sadness
- 3 reasons is is GOOD to be sad after a diagnosis
- 3 dangers of being sad after a diagnosis
- 4 reasons admitting we are sad is not easy
Tears
- What I learnt when I cried in church
- How to cope with public grief
- Why I think it’s okay to grieve in church
Anger
- After a diagnosis: why anger?
- What to do when chronic illness makes you angry
- Book Review: Why must we express our anger to God?
Breaking the news
- Wait! I don’t know how to tell them
- Wait! I don’t know how to answer their questions
- Wait! People KEEP asking…
Challenges:
- Is it really better to give than to receive?
- Help, my sick friend is not so sick?
- Is it always right to bear someone’s burden?
- Am I burden to my chronically ill friend?
I live far away
Chronic illness is long…
- Help! I’m not allowed to say it’s unfair
- Help! I’ve run out of sympathy
- Planning your future when you’re a caregiver
- Long term or short term thinking?
- How chronic illness changes your perspective of home (and what to do about it)
- 3 places not to place your hope in during chronic illness
- Why we need to celebrate the small things
Talking about suffering
- Why pure motives don’t always make things right
- When NOT to answer the question
- Why answering The Question is so difficult
- When we miss our chance to have The Conversation
- Why small talk is so important (and why I neglect it)
Relationships
- Chronic illness is affecting my relationship
- 3 questions to ask when chronic illness threatens your relationship
- Why we need to tell our chronically ill friend the truth
- I think I hate my chronically ill family member
- Help! I’m jealous of their chronic illness
- Someone I love has a chronic illness – and I’m too young to help
- How to love a chronically ill EXTROVERT
- How to love a chronically ill INTROVERT
- Why you should fight someone else’s battles
- Why you shouldn’t fight someone else’s battles
Life and Chronic Illness:
Practical tips
- How to make a hospital visit less awkward
- How to write a Get Well Soon card for someone with a chronic illness
- Why you should attend your loved one’s doctor’s appointment (and how to prepare)
- 7 ways to use words to encourage someone without lying
Lessons I’ve learnt
- I am thankful (sorry it’s cliche)
- What a stomach bug taught me about chronic illness
- Can good come out of bad? A personal journey
- My timing is not always right, and that’s okay
Pondering
- Treasure your broken dreams
- You cannot do it all
- A letter to the PARENTS who are chronically ill
- A letter to the SIBLINGS who are chronically ill
- Do you laugh at misfortune?
- Should we use labels?
- Why you should use cliches to talk about chronic illness
- Idealism or pessimism?
- Why you should widen your perspective (and how)
Holidays
- Chronic illness won’t let me celebrate the New Year
- Christmas and Chronic illness – friends or enemies?
- 2017: favourite posts
- Travel and chronic illness
- 2018: favourite posts
- Celebrate endings not beginnings this New Year
Living in a first world country
Love in a Time of Chronic Illness (snapshots from my life):
- # 4 Why illness is not everything
- # 3 How to balance scepticism with love
- # 2 Am I my family’s keeper?
- # 1 The gift that wasn’t for her
Other people’s stories:
- What I’ve been reading lately April
- What I’ve been reading lately January
- My son is sick and in jail (Mary)
- Chronic illness, Marriage and Parenting
- My daughter has a chronic illness (Helen)
- My husband has chronic inflammatory disease (Katie)
Christianity and illness:
Prayer
- Prayer, chronic illness and healing (part 1) MASTER POST
- Prayer, chronic illness and healing (part 2) MASTER POST
- Jesus prayed, I prayed and none of us were answered
- Dealing with troublesome Bible verses about prayer
- 3 reasons praying for healing is so hard
- Why we need to make up our minds about prayer
- Why I feel uncomfortable when people want to pray for healing
Mission & Service
- Should I encourage my chronically ill friend to serve?
- What to do when you are unable to serve your local community due to sickness
- How to serve your local community when your loved one is sick
- I have a chronic illness: is God calling me to sacrifice my health?
- Can I be a missionary if my family member is sick?
Chronic illness