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Sleep Denies Her
Sleep is a basic need for all humans. The average adult needs 8 hours of undisturbed sleep. Studies show that not getting enough quality sleep leads to cognitive decline. Sleep loss also affects the immune system and the body’s ability to fight off infections. Cancer rates increase significantly with sleep loss. Sleep for someone with chronic illness is difficult. Chronic Illness and Sleep For those of us with chronic illness sleep is a constant struggle. Pain keeps us up at night. Finding comfort during sleep is difficult. Our brains process pain differently and we may experience more pain sensitivity at night. Some of the medications we need to take have…
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Grief and Chronic Illness
When we think of grief, we associate it with losing someone we love. Grief is the feeling associated with loss. Grief for the chronic illness community is the loss of functioning, relationships, and work or career. The Seven Stages of Grief Dr. Jennifer Martin updated the stages of grief for chronic illness. These are seven stages of grief in chronic illness are denial, bargaining, anger, depression, loss of self-control, re-evaluation of life and acceptance. Denial Denial is ignoring the truth. I will tell myself that if I worked out harder or was more active, I would feel better. I also thought that the first hip surgery would be a cure…