Don't Assume
(Author Unknown)
(Author Unknown)
very deceiving. Many days I look great but feel terrible.
Don't say, "I know how you feel." No one knows how anyone else feels.
We all have varying thresholds of pain, and pain cannot be measured.
Don't tell me about your Aunt with so and so disease or ailment and how
she managed in spite of it. I am doing the best I can.
'Don't tell me, "It could be worse." I don't need to be reminded.
Don't decide what I am capable of doing. Allow me to make those
decisions. There may be times I 'm wrong, but I'll know soon enough.
Don't be upset that you cannot ease my problems. It won't do any good
for both of us to be miserable.
Don't ask me how I feel unless you really want to know. You may hear a
lot more than you are prepared to listen to.
Don't assume because I did a certain activity yesterday that I can do
it today.
Don't tell me about the latest fad cure. If there is a legtimate
treatment, my doctor will let me know.
Do realize that I am angry and frustrated with the disease, not with
you.
Do let me know that you are available to help me when I ask.
Do offer me lots of encouragement.
Do understand why I cancel plans at the last minute. I never know from
one day to the next how I will feel.
Do continue to invite me to activities. Just because I am not able to
bike along with the gang does not mean that I can't meet you for the picnic
at the end of the trail. Please let me decide. Thank you.
3 comments:
This makes me somewhat sad. Am I looking at it right? I just wish everyone could be healthy.
Unfortunately, your wish will never come true. There are diseases in this world that are very difficult to bear. Cystic fibrosis is one of them. However, the point of the poem (in my opinion) is that we CFers don't want to be left out because we're sick; we don't want people to feel sorry for us; we need empathy, not necessarily sympathy for the many limitations that cystic fibrosis imposes on us.
It may seem sad but is sooooooo true.
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