You Dont Look Sick

[Rachel]

Hello to all of my good looking friends! If only we could have a dollar for every time we hear that, we'd have no trouble paying our medical bills!

In my experience, there is a difference between a comment of "You don't look sick," and "You look good."

"You don't look sick" can be more of an accusation, like the observer is wondering if you are making up your illness. They think, "If you don't look sick, how can you actually be sick?"

When someone has said to me, "But you look good," it has usually been because they believe me when I say that I'm sick, and they are just shocked that I can look so good. My response to this is usually, "Make up does a lot!"

Other times the comment, "You look good," is meant to be a compliment. The person is meaning to brighten my day. But, still, hearing "you look good" can get really old. In the grand scheme of things, though, hearing "you look good" isn't such a bad thing. I feel like poo, but at least I don't always have to look like poo!

Rachel

[ladyt]

hey

is it great that we are all so great looking...=)

at a party a women told me that i was too cute too bee sick ( i ended up fainting and was still too cute )...

I think that somtimes one gett a bitt sensitiv whit a so caled invisible and litle understand condition. Not being belived by peers, medical people etc..

I try to take it as as compliment more than not, but it depend on the situation.. the you dont look sick is a bitt harder to handel, but i try to ignore it. this so called invisible thing is fare from invisible inn my life..

and if people chuse to think i am a weak being and a parasite (dont work), well so be it.. When it comes to strangers i dont care at all, byt family etc... well i cant forcse understanding on them..=)

so dont feel bad for looking good, spes when felling so bad...

and makup is wounderfull.. mineral powder and concselar ....

[ramakentesh]

Ive got POTS and when i was real bad at the start I used to turn pale before Id nearly faint. Ive never actually fainted thankfull but my word ive been sooo close...

Nowdays I often look unusually well WHEN im having an episode. The only way people might be able to notice is when I avoid eye contact when im like that because its almost like my vision makes me feel dizzier and i cant keep up with what is going on... A friend once told me that sometimes i look like my eyes arent focusing properly.

[Troy]

Ah the perils of an invisible illness, sometimes its a blessing sometimes its a curse. Often I take great pride in the fact that my appearance looks so healthy for someone who is actually so sick underneath. I try to emphasise my healthy appearance by dressing in youthful colorful sporty clothing, I follow fashion closely, shave every morning, and do my hair with wax which has tips in it, and when I step out of the house to see friends they all comment on how well and healthy I look. I feel like my biggest trick and achievement in life is to look that healthy when infact I am anything but.

I guess I feel like the best thing I have going for me in my life is my healthy and youthful appearance, but then there are times when I need assistance from specialists or Doctors for my health problems and often its times like this that looking so well can be a burden, they seem somehat unconvinced that I have so many symptoms. One Doctor even commented saying how well I look for someone with so many complaints and questioned wether infact I had the issues I mentioned. My response to him was that...I too could throw on some dark dreary clothing reflecting how I really feel inside and neglect shaving to the point I looked old and keep my hair messy and walk in to his office with a limp due to the amount of pain I have in my joints which I do my best to hide, but if I did all that then to me that is accepting defeat, and I dont want to throw in the towel yet, just beacuse I make an effort to look well and the fact that I have a condition thats somehat invisible as it effects my vitals that people cannot see does not give anyone the right to assume that I dont deserve the traetment I need. Its bad enough being so sick but then to look as sick as I feel would bring my spirit down even more so I think we have a right to have as many positive things as possible in our lives.

[iheartcats]

I'm feeling a bit heartbroken today that I work so hard to at least get my family/those closest to me to understand my POTS. Well, talked to some family tonight and they were like 'a nurse was over today and said she's had tachycardia since she was young and just deals with it - she said she just takes it in stride.'

I don't 'just' have tachycardia. It feels like they think I'm exaggerating (I am not). I actually do MORE than I should with my POTS. I push myself too hard sometimes, my doctor feels.

I'm so stressed from the arguing that often ensues with people who just don't want to understand that I have a problem with my ANS system - it's not a 'heart problem' per se, it's not something I am imagining, I'm coping with a chronic condition.

This has just been a bad day all around and I'm exhausted. Not a great way to end it, whatsoever.

[EarthMother]

I sometimes think, talking with people about POTS is like talking with people about GOD. For some of us, there is a seed of faith that we have deep inside of us. And no amount of talking can convey our faith to another person if they do not have that seed of understanding. It doesn't make them bad people. They just have never felt what we go through so they can only compare it to things they know. I spent years trying to make sure my family "understood me", but now it is a bit easier to accept that they may never understand and to try and see all of their comments as well intentioned and loving. Indeed how God would see me, I imagine.

~EM