I was surprised today to find out that a boy in my office has Crohn's disease. He's been off because he's recently started remicade infusions and he's got an infection. It really knocked me sideways how hidden these things can be. He's never off sick really so I wouldn't have ever known only I've been working on a project with his girlfriend and she was really concerned about him this morning and kind of let it slip he was on immunosupressants which spiked my interest. We then got chatting about stuff and it turns out her dad has pretty severe RA as well and retired early because of it. She had no idea I had RA so it was quite weird to discover all these things about each other having worked together for years.
I wonder how many people at my work are affected/know someone who is affected by a 'secret' auto immune disease. Probably more than I thought!
Wow! That is interesting. I bet there are a lot more people than we would imagine.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you think that you are totally alone in all of this, and you get completely blind-sided by finding out someone who you've known is in the same boat. I mean, it sucks for them, but nice to not be alone, you know?
ReplyDelete* fingers crossed that blogger lets me publish this comment!! I've had such a hard time lately! *
Wow! Hope he does ok with the infection. I am convinced that we autoimmuners tend to play shy about our diseases. And I find this happens more so at work then anywhere else. I think it is fear of what others might think about our ability to continue to work at 100%. It is unfortunately the culture of the corporate world too. I was hoping alot of this was changing but I think with the economy and all it will still exists until things change economically. Then maybe the pendulum will swing back so people will feel better about saying it as it is.
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