Chronic (medicine) Archives - Rest Ministries - Chronic Illness and Pain Support

Am I a Hypochondriac If…

February 23, 2012 By admin 1 Comment

By Lisa Copen We laugh as people say, "I think I may be a hypochondriac!" but is it really a funny matter? Not so much. Am I a hypochondriac if... I get up at 2:30 AM to google a symptom I am experiencing and I start imagining all the things it could be? It is unlikely. In today's age of having immediate information at our fingertips, it is much easier to just get out of bed and start searching than to wait until morning when the doctor's office is open and then we must decide to call him or not. In the days of our parents raising their children, rather than looking for search engine results in the middle of the night, they sat at the kitchen table with the Dr. Spock book attempting to figure out the cause of certain symptoms and if … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Articles - Read, Explaining Illness, Fear, Mental Illness, Person w/ Illness, What's New?, Worry Tagged With: am i a hypochondriac, Chronic (medicine), Conditions and Diseases, Cyberchondria, Disease, Health, Hypochondriasis, Magnetic resonance imaging, Rest Ministries, worry

Devotion: Allowing Jesus to Spring Clean Our Hearts

February 13, 2012 By admin 1 Comment

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10) My home is filled with clutter. Some areas I try to keep neat, yet others, such as our guest room, remain an embarrassing mess. I have made excuses for this disaster, but a deeper reason besides laziness exists that allowed this room and others to fill with junk. Keeping this room full of useless things and shutting the door was seemingly less painful than facing the harsh reality: the reality of an empty room never to be filled or used by a child. My survival tactic for battling countless years of infertility remained the same: hide the mess behind closed doors and pretend it doesn’t exist. The scar tissue that blocked my fallopian tube … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotionals, What's New? Tagged With: Chronic (medicine), God, Jesus, Kindle, Lord, Pain, Psalm, Tracey Brown

Pastor Begins Web Site for Those with Arthritis

February 1, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Living with Arthritis is unique in that it is developed by a pastor who has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Chad Fisher says, “My site was developed and started out of my desire to help people living with arthritis. Having lived with this disease for over 30 years, I understand the difficulties, limitations, and pain associated with chronic illness. He truly wants to help and share his experiences to help others. He had not found in the typical arthritis web sites the attitude he was searching for. “I wanted to share from a different perspective. Most of the blogs or websites I read seemed to have a negative mood and mindset to them. I understand why, but I also know when facing an illness this kind of mindset is less than helpful. I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Links, Person w/ Illness, Share Your Story, What's New? Tagged With: Arthritis, Chad, Chronic (medicine), Conditions and Diseases, God, Health, Juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Musculoskeletal Disorders

What is the Hardest Part of Living with Illness? Your Responses!

January 24, 2012 By admin 8 Comments

What is the hardest part of living with a chronic illness? Well, it depends on who you are asking, what time of day you are asking, and a million other factors. Yet, we all have so much in common and we can understand the challenges of the friend beside us even if we don't deal with it ourselves. We all feel "called" to certain things, and not being able to do them--from homeschooling to making dinner--is difficult when we don't feel we can do what we, and others, expect from our self. And the fact that it is invisible . . . well, that makes many of the struggles even more painful as we feel we must justify a housekeeper or a parking placard. We asked you, "What is the hardest part of living with illness?" and here are your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Attitude, What's New?, Working Tagged With: challenges, Chronic, Chronic (medicine), chronically ill challenges, Conditions and Diseases, coping, difficulties, Fatigue (medical), Fibromyalgia, frustrations with illness, God, hard living with illness, Health, Illness, Pain, Polycystic ovary syndrome, suffering, things that are hard to cope with when ill

What She Learned Lying Down, Angela Dugi Shares Her Reflections

August 4, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Bridget Gazlay Through my conversations with Angela Dugi, author of What I Learned Lying Down: Hope for the Chronically Ill, I saw that God did indeed meet her needs during her times of devastation. She struggles with chronic fatigue, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, and asthma, and yet God has provided for her in miraculous ways. God has used her illnesses to teach her five life lessons: First, we must gain an eternal perspective "God used my weekly trips to the cancer center to teach me that, and much more." Because she is chronically ill, she could empathize with others who were hurting. She knows firsthand (after fourteen years) how encouraging words helped her to survive when she thought she could not … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Coping Skills, Person w/ Illness, Share Your Story, Spiritually Struggling, What's New? Tagged With: Christ, Chronic (medicine), God, Gospel of Matthew, Holy Spirit, New International Version, Second Epistle to the Corinthians, West Michigan

Devotion: Avoiding Losing Heart So We Can Enjoy The Good Things

July 19, 2011 By admin 6 Comments

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthian 4:7, 16-18) I am a jar of clay. Do you ever feel like that? Outwardly, my physical body is a mess. But inwardly my spirit is being renewed day by day. If you look at me with this world's eyes you would see a 55-year-old woman in a wheelchair, recliner, or in bed. Most … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotionals, What's New? Tagged With: Christ, Christianity, Chronic (medicine), Eye, God, Jesus, Lord, Religion & Spirituality

Devotion: Choosing When and How to Reveal My Heart

July 15, 2011 By admin 8 Comments

"Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ," (Galatians 6:2) She jabbered on and on as we walked the trail. Suddenly, my new friend stopped. "I talk a lot," she said, "but I don't reveal much." Although she didn't know it, she had done just that. Even more, she was one step ahead of me. I couldn't fault her for keeping people at a distance. I was doing the same thing. On that very day, I drove to the nature park to get away from everything and everyone. Frustrated. Disappointed. Exhausted. Depressed. I wanted to go away for good. Chronic illness has a way of doing that to people, and I'm no exception. But God brought this complete stranger to walk the trail with me. We even talked about … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotionals, What's New? Tagged With: Chronic (medicine), Chronic Illness, Conditions and Diseases, Current events, God, Health, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality

How Do You Explain Living With Illness to Your Church?

June 28, 2011 By admin 4 Comments

"I want to be able to share the ups and downs but not sound like I am complaining. . ." "I've read about people who are presenting to their church staff about chronic illness, but that makes me too nervous. . ." "A deacon came by to visit me last week and she told me I looked fabulous and that the tests I had to have later that day were 'no big deal.' I wish I could gracefully give her some tips, but I don't want to hurt her feelings." We have a wonderful new tool! A DVD with 24 tips of 2-3 minutes each that are perfect for a church staff to watch. You could give a copy of this DVD to the women's ministry director, perhaps the pastor's wife who you heard is chronically ill. Encourage your congregational care team to watch a couple of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Beyond Casseroles, Church Leader, RM Shop E-flyers, What's New? Tagged With: Chronic (medicine), Chronic Illness, Conditions and Diseases, DVD, God, Health, Illness, Jesus

Easy Ways to Tell a Friend About Rest Ministries

June 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Rest Ministries exists because of you. . . because you SHARE about Rest Ministries. (THANK YOU!) And sure, we love those little online buttons that say "Like" or "Share" but what about the old-fashioned way? You remember, when you are telling a friend who is sitting in front of you? We have some cute little products to help you share. PRODUCT LINKS: Calling Cards about Rest Ministries - Pack of 100 | Tract - Why Can't Anyone Understand? Other Rest Ministries Literature Items | The Clinging Cross … [Read more...]

Filed Under: RM Shop E-flyers, What's New? Tagged With: Chronic (medicine), DVD, God, Jesus, Lord, Organizations, Rest Ministries, Rheumatoid arthritis

Devotion: Seeing Beyond Today When We Are Living With Illness

June 10, 2011 By admin 4 Comments

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him." (Isaiah 30:18) My stomach hurts. That may not seem like a big thing, but when you live daily with a chronic illness anyway, something like an additional problem like a stomachache can cause your pain level to be almost unbearable. With new symptoms and new health problems, this can also mean more doctors' appointments and more medications. Combine this with low or no finances, and no resources available to help, the stress alone can contribute to even more and more pain both physical and emotional. It seems like a cruel cycle determined to drag us down. Life is not fair. . . Where is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotionals, What's New? Tagged With: Christian, Chronic (medicine), Creator deity, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Pain, Small business

Thanks For Your Comments! Goodie Bag #1 ‘Winner’ Announced

June 6, 2011 By admin 1 Comment

Thanks so much to all our wonderful commenters last week at our web site and over at the Chronic Illness Devotions site! We are excited to announce our goodie bag winner for our first week. Our random winner is Ada A.. Ada wrote: When we have to deal with a chronic illness, it’s not something that will go away just by thinking on something positive like some tell us to do. The illness remains with us no matter what. Chronic is just that … it remains. Therefore, we must learn to cope, and that means that we must learn to ‘lean on a stronger source’, and thankfully as Christians we have a source higher than us, and that is Jesus. He is there for us 24/7, and just a whisper away. I find for myself that whenever … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcements, What's New? Tagged With: Chronic (medicine), Chronic Illness, Conditions and Diseases, DVD, God, Health, Jesus, United States

What Were The Most Popular Posts in May at Rest Ministries?

June 2, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Below are the articles you all seemed to like best during the month of May here at Rest Ministries. We publish a devotional every day and then 1-3 articles during the week. If you missed one of these below, be sure to check them out and don't forget to share it, add a comemnt, or pass it along to encourage another. Be sure to leave your comments or feedback about the articles. It helps us know what is on your mind and how we can better serve you! Devotion: Count on God’s Promises And Try Not Not Waver 243 views Poem: The Gift of Pain 224 views Carrying Super Rachel – The Logistics of When Your Wife Is Chronically Ill 207 views 10 Tips for Building Resilience in the Face of Chronic Illness 173 views Why, As Christians, We … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcements, Articles, What's New? Tagged With: Christian, Chronic (medicine), God, Google, Health, Lord, Rest Ministries, Rheumatoid arthritis