So I read the news, a lot. And probably I read too much news and especially health news - searching for the elusive cures. But in reading the news, I see lots of different opinions and announcements as one would expect.
Two things caught my eye this morning. One reminds us that breast cancer is not the main killer of women. Its heart disease. While we cover the world in little pink ribbons for breast cancer, we need to remember heart disease and other ailments are out there as well and that also kill people.
Another article I read is about a woman who blogs about life with fibromyalgia. I read the article and then thought for a few minutes (a dangerous proposition I know). Yes she is struggling with fibromyalgia. But there are people out there, like me, that have fibromyalgia and additional ailments. So those struggles with fibromyalgia are piled on top of issues with other ailments or issues.
When we are diagnosed with an ailment, it becomes the hyperfocus of our lives. But we need to realize that we are not the worst off, there are many others who have their own pile of problems, including poverty, mental illness, and more and are in much worse shape.
Imagine life with your pile of ailments and issues and compound it with additional ones such as poverty, lack of health insurance or transportation, isolation, or other issues.
I make myself sometimes peel off my layers of focus on my life and keep the awareness of others who are worse off.
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