Sacrifice (Part 2): Medications

This is part 2 of a multiple-part series addressing some misconceptions about people who are chronically ill or who have specific disabilities.
I am attempting to discuss some of the stigma surrounding the medically ill with some basic (some hypothetical) examples.

Here is part 2 of this series.

Medications

I think we are all painfully aware of the multitude of side effects that can accompany medications. Even taking allergy medications, over-the-counter, can result in reduce cognitive functions. It can impair memory, multi-tasking abilities, and other sensory perceptions.
If we add in common pain relievers, laxatives, sleep aids, antibiotics, or anti-nausea medication, we add in various unexpected side effects.
These side effects can affect many different systems. Our digestive system may be affected, our mental capacity may be altered, we may feel more ill, or have muscle spasms, feel more tired, or require special dietary changes. All of this can affect how we do everything in our daily lives. Even beyond medication, anything that we ingest can have unexpected side effects. Caffeine consumption, essential oils, alternative therapies, natural supplements, these all have effects on our systems (which is why so many people use them). If they have an effect on symptoms, they obviously create changes in the body, which means they can result in unwanted adverse effects.

A person who has a chronic illness is likely on more than one medication, treatment, supplement, or therapy. No matter what the illness is, medications or remedies will have some effects that are unexpected. So their illness is reducing their capacity to function to a certain degree in one section, and then whatever this person takes or does to help ease the symptoms of their illness is likely reducing function in one or more additional sections.

In effect, someone with chronic illness has issues that affect their every day life because of illness AND because of whatever they take for their illness.

Medications/treatments/remedies/therapies RARELY provide solely positive effects. Taking medication for an illness does not usually mean that this person's overall health will automatically be improved. It means that some symptoms may be easier to handle and others may become worse. Finding the balance that is most comfortable and most productive for the individual is the goal. Unless there is a known, all-encompassing, cure, every chronically ill patient will suffer in some capacity for life. They will have to sacrifice one symptom for another, one ability for another, one side effect for another.