Being Sick Is Work
I’ve spent most of the past four days in bed with a virus.
I’ve been too fatigued to do much of anything. My appetite disappeared. My body has felt weak. And the mental clarity I usually take for granted hasn’t been there.
Even writing has felt like too much.
And this has only been four days.
As I lay here, I find myself thinking about the people I work with and write for who live with exhaustion, weakness, brain fog, nausea, pain, loss of appetite, and countless other effects of cancer and its treatment—not for only four days, but week after week, month after month, often with no real opportunity to recover before the next treatment begins.
I would never pretend that being sick for a few days tells me what that experience is like.
It can't.
But this week has reminded me, in a very small and personal way, of something that's easy to understand intellectually and much harder to appreciate physically:
Being sick is work.
Sometimes getting through the day is the work.
And if that’s where you are right now, I get it a little more than I did last week.
Reflections on the inner psychological experience of living alongside cancer.
Jae L. Ross, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist who works with individuals and families whose lives have been reshaped by cancer, helping them navigate the emotional challenges of diagnosis, treatment, and beyond.
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