She's not cancer!

Patti has a beautifully put post on what it's like to have chronic illness:

It's hard to believe it's been four months since I was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. During that time I've had a colon resection and four chemo treatments AND played lots of bridge, some golf, taken trips to New York, Atlanta, and Orlando, gone out for lunch with friends dozens of times, continued my Monday morning with Meals on Wheels, and -- well you get the idea.

Some days, even some weeks, I have so many medical appointments, see so many doctors and nurses, and have so many tests, that I start to feel like my whole life is about cancer. I just want to shout, "I'm not cancer!"

I am Patti. A Christian woman, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, bike rider, golfer, volunteer, card player, lover of books and music, traveler, and animal lover, and I have cancer.

But make no mistake, I AM NOT CANCER!

Her framing of "being cancer" rings so true for those of us with chronic illness (I have nothing approaching the seriousness of cancer, thank God) -- our illness often supercedes our identity. In some ways this is only natural; life must be planned around your situation, your appointments, etc. But can be damaging coming from friends and family who only inquire about the illness, and particularly doctors who have difficulty separating the person from the disease. It's so essential to preserve the other parts of your life -- and much too easy to get swept up in the gravity of disease.