CHRONIC ILLNESS

Impact of Chronic Illness

Impact of Chronic Illness

Introduction

Chronic condition is that disease which lasts for longer than three months, whereas, an acute disease is the one which effects the human health for shorter periods of time, usually less than three months. Chronic disease may be confused with recurrent or relapsing diseases which reoccur in patterns, irregularly or in reaction to other health conditions. Both chronic and acute diseases leave different effects on human health. Chronic illness stays for longer times and therefore, has more side effects than acute diseases usually have. Chronic illness not only affects the medical condition of its victims but also devastates the social, intellectual, emotional, professional and personal life. Among the most common types of chronic diseases are asthma, arthritis, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, back pain and COPD.

Sue, aged 36 is another victim of arthritis (a chronic disease). Her medical condition is not only effecting her but also her family; her children, 9 years old Simon and 13 years old Karen. Being unable to walk she has to use a wheel chair which discourages her to live an active and healthy social life. Having her condition worsened, she had to quit her job a few years ago. With no handsome source of income she has to manage her and her family's expenses within the state benefits she gets. Her financial conditions impede her from achieving her ambitions and aims of life. Her children also have to suffer because of their mother's chronic illness; Sue cannot take care of her children as other parents do. Sue cannot participate in her children's school and sports life. The family cannot have picnics, outdoor activities and parties as frequently as other do. Furthermore her chronic illness also affects her emotionally.

Discussion

Chronic diseases affect the human life in several ways. Following are some aspects of life of Sue which are severely affected by her chronic disease, arthritis.

Medical Impact

Sue as patient of arthritis faces continuous pain in her knee joints. The pain can be very intense some times and it alone causes social, psychological and physical effects on the victim. As in most chronic diseases, Sue's condition also worsened with the passage of time. At the beginning she had to avoid or quit only the activities having intense impact on her joints but later when her conditions worsened and the pain became more consistent and intense she had to quit from her work. Arthritis causes the development of several other medical problems such as hip pain. When patients of osteoarthritis try to tackle with their joint pain by reducing the stress on that leg and overloading the other, pain starts to develop in the hip joints.

Gastrointestinal and Renal Complications

Arthritis reduces the movement of its victims and medications such as aspirin decrease the renal function. This causes several gastrointestinal and renal complications. Gastrointestinal and renal problems are found in as many as 83% of the patients suffering from osteoarthritis. This further causes nausea, esophagus ulcerations, vomiting, papillary necrosis, and renal ...