The big C, cancer, has been getting a lot of press lately. Everyone seems to be weighing in on the good, the bad and the ugly decisions that Elizabeth & John Edwards are making. I think that one encouraging piece of news is that cancer is being discussed as a chronic illness and what living with chronic illness can mean. (Read Andrew Sullivan’s column in the London Times.)
I’m glad that Elizabeth Edwards will still have her job in her husband’s campaign during the chemo therapy — but for most people, that’s not always the case. Cancer “survivors” can find that they’re weak for a long time after therapy and that people can lose sympathy and drop support if you can’t return to your “old work self”.
For those of us with illnesses that slowly eat away at our strength and our abilities, it can feel nearly impossible to find a way to feel valuable and to contribute in the workforce. And, I don’t believe that you should HAVE to come to peace with this – that the heroic thing to do is to spend time meditating on how to make ourselves well again. Now, I don’t have anything against that (I spent time doing it in my own life). But I think that it should be a choice. For some of us, being active and purposeful at work is the best medicine we can find. Unfortunately, in this highly productive work culture, there isn’t adequate space for the woman or man who can’t be 110%. And, that means, too often, that living with a dis abling chronic illness (meaning it makes you unable to do something) can mean that you are considered unable (by others and by yourself) to do much of anything. What a waste…
Rosalind