pa·tience
ˈpeɪ ʃəns [pey-shuh ns]–noun
1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.
3. quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience.
4. Cards (chiefly British ) . solitaire ( def. 1 ) .
5. Also called patience dock . a European dock, Rumex patientia, of the buckwheat family, whose leaves are often used as a vegetable.
6. Obsolete . leave; permission; sufference.
CHRONIC TONIC posts on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST, it is a place to share stories, advice, and information and to connect with others with chronic health conditions and those who care for them. Our diarists will report on research, alternative treatments, clinical trials, and health insurance issues through personal stories. You are invited to share in comments (and note if you'd like to be a future diarist).
Tonight's Diary by: nchristine
Patience, everyone has some. Some have more than others. Those that have a chronic condition and many of those that surround them have had to learn patience. We have to wait for doctor appointments. We have to wait for lab results. We have to wait until whatever the condition we have subsides before we feel that we can participate in the ‘real’ world.
Two years ago, my doctor thought I should go to a specialist to help me loose weight. (I am 5 foot even, weigh around 218 pounds and wear US women’s size 18. I follow in the footsteps of my German peasant stock ancestors. That and I have hypothyroidism which makes gaining weight very easy and loosing it very hard.) This specialist had a program of tests for the patients. One of these ‘tests’ involved going to physical therapy and get on a tread mill to determine some of my ‘endurance’. The physical therapist was astonished at my normal, casual walking pace. She thought it unusually ‘slow’. Well, if you knew the family history, I was walking ‘normal’, especially in relation to those in the family that have physical disabilities. I learned to walk at my mother’s speed. My mother had CMT (Charco Marie Tooth – a genetic neuromuscular disorder). Because of the condition, her walking gait was ‘off’ and had to walk carefully to prevent falls. For me, she was always this way. As the years progressed, her walking had to be more careful and therefore those of us around her had to learn to walk slower in order to include her. What were we supposed to do?? Walk along and leave her behind to catch up as she could?? Were we supposed to deposit her somewhere and go off to do our own thing?? No, we learned to slow our pace down, to be patient, to look around at the little things, include our less mobile family members. It’s how we learned to live life.
Having had to learn ‘patience’ to work with mom’s condition has given me the ‘patience’ to deal with many other things in life. I have to have blood work done at least once a year, but more often at least twice a year to evaluate the TSH, T3, and T4 levels. These three things are indications of the level of function in the thyroid. Depending upon the level of function at current time vs. the last set of blood work will determine if the patient is getting enough T3 and/or T4 replacement through medication. If the medication has to be changed it takes time for the change to affect lab results. It takes patience to deal with the waiting.
All of these experiences have given me the time to learn patience for dealing with the extended unemployment that I’ve been going through for the last 18 months. On applications I refuse to identify myself as a person with a disability on any of the applications I submit for employment. Clinical depression and/or major depressive disorder are listed on the ADA list of recognized disabilities. Clinical depression and/or major depressive disorder is one of many possible symptoms of hypo/hyperthyroidism. Since hypothyroidism involves chemicals of the brain, it can affect a whole bunch of other things in the brain. Not everyone with clinical depression has hypothyroidism, but most that have hypothyroidism have clinical depression as well.
I don’t want special treatment. I want the same chances as everyone else. I want a job because of my talents and skills, not because I can give the company a tax break (They get the breaks in exchange for the extras that they may have to deal with to accommodate the disability.)
So, I wait. More than one of you have stated that I have been extraordinarily patient in my job search. I think its more persistence. I think most of us with chronic conditions have more persistence than patience. We don’t take ‘no’ as a viable answer to whatever situation we find ourselves. What y’all haven’t seen is the hours I’ve spent crying because of the perceived rejection of myself in the ‘thanks but no thanks’ emails. Y’all haven’t always seen the wheels turning in my head telling me that I’ll get there; no you’ll never get there because you have xx wrong with you. I come to places like Chronic Tonic be around people like me that have some type of medical condition that interferes with ‘routine’ life. It has been through y’alls words of experience, acceptance, encouragement, reminders, and scolding’s that I’ve been able to pick myself up and continue. To be patient and persistent.
per·sist·ent
pərˈsɪs tənt, -ˈzɪs- [per-sis-tuh nt, -zis-]–adjective
1. persisting, especially in spite of opposition, obstacles, discouragement, etc.; persevering: a most annoyingly persistent young man.
2. lasting or enduring tenaciously: the persistent aroma of verbena; a persistent cough.
3. constantly repeated; continued: persistent noise.
4. Biology.
a. continuing or permanent.
b. having continuity of phylogenetic characteristics.
5. Botany . remaining attached beyond the usual time, as flowers, flower parts, or leaves.
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