Social interactions, illness, isolation and other frustration

Well the title says it all, and sums up the last year and a half for us. We’ve discovered there are so many ways a chronic illness impacts life.

I've been to the airport so many times in the last 1.5 years, this last time was so foggy!

When we first arrived in Australia and people started inviting us to things, it became to frustrating and disappointing. We would say “yes” to an invitation but on the day Soeun would be sick so I would end up going by myself, or not going at all.

As a few one-offs thats kind of ok, but when it become a general pattern it makes life hard. Not being able to keep commitments, not being able to show people they are important to us by spending time with them.

So it’s easier not to make plans, then we don’t have the disappointment of breaking them. Which means when people invited us to things we are sometimes in a tricky position.

And it’s not just going out, it feel likes it’s in every part of our life. Often Soeun does have good days or weeks which give us a break, but then the disappointment and frustration that comes when it’s over feels worse each time.

Recently we have been trying some different things to cope with it. A few people have wanted to meet us and talk to us, so we invited them to meet us on at the Bible school we live at. That meant whether Soeun was sick of not I would get to see them, Soeun had freedom on the day to stay inside the whole time or part of the time depending on his health.

If you look carefully you might be able to see Soeun

 Once he was ok on the day, another time he was too sick to come out at all, another time he just came out for a bit.

But the frustrations and disappointments seem to be running our life to the point of it feeling like its not productive to keep going with what we are doing, so time to make some changes!

We are sad about all the things we’ve missed but happy to be making new plans.