Even if we don't individually experience or know details of someone else's health issues, the fact that we care about and offer support for one another is immensely helpful!

Because of the seriousness of some of our issues, it is sometimes difficult to let on to loved ones just HOW difficult things are because then they get really worried. So it's good to be able to talk about it here, where others care but not in the same degree as our immediate family cares.

We can say things that we occasionally feel that would freak out family members, making them wicked worried. Everyone with chronic or major health issues has those days sometimes when they just wanna jump off a bridge. Not to really do it, but to indulge the negative feelings so they can be felt and then discarded as temporary whining. Our families couldn't let them go, so we can't say such things aloud to them.