When you have multiple different illnesses, it can get overwhelming and disheartening to go to an appointment. I remember being told (jokingly) to stop going to the doctor because every time I would see a doctor I would get bad news, so if I just didn't go, I wouldn't be sick! It was funny at the time, but it does put a spotlight on a real experience for many people with chronic illness.
It absolutely feels like every big appointment results in some bad news.
Each time I go to the dentist, for instance, they update my chart and I have to mention new medications, allergies, or illnesses. In the past two years, I have had something new to update almost every single appointment, which is every 3-4 months.
When you condense it down like that, that seems like a lot of discouraging news.
So - when I have an appointment with no additional bad news, that's a win!
Yesterday I had my annual hearing test & updated hearing aid assessment.
Good news: my hearing hasn't worsened since it was checked in February, in either ear! It is stable! Hooray!
Even more good news: this particular hearing aid has a lot of room to adjust the programming if/when my hearing does worsen.
While it is easy to simply exhale and then go about the day like nothing of great importance happened, I believe that it is essential to celebrate the 'no news', and especially the 'good news', appointments. They are just as key to our continuing health experience. So even the 'nothing has changed' appointments deserve to be celebrated.
Otherwise we give too much of our emotional focus on solely the bad appointments.
So cheers to 'nothing has changed' with my Otosclerosis and an extra toast for the hearing aid that is helping me hear better. 🥂