Which Disease/Condition Is The Hardest To Live With?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Which of these conditions would you find it hardest to live with day to day? Which would be the easiest?

A) Stage 2 Colon Cancer

B) HIV

C) Multiple Sclerosis

D) Crohn’s Disease

E) Schizophrenia

I don’t know personally all can be debilitating in different ways.

2

I am shocked that people picked schizophrenia over colon cancer, MS, and Chron’s. Please, explain yourselves.

3

Because with schizophrenia it’s your mind that is damaged. It’s you, not just your body that is harmed.

4

I went with Crohn’s:

-Being HIV+ requires a steady regimen of pills, but if you begin that regimen before you have full-blown AIDS, you can live a relatively normal life; it’s not the miserable death sentence it used to be.

-MS is highly variable, but if caught early, the disease-modifying drugs that are available these days can do a pretty good job of keeping it in check. My sister was diagnosed with MS 5 years ago after experiencing transient bouts of limb paralysis and sensory oddiities (e.g. hot felt cold and cold felt hot); she quit her day job a couple of years after that, but she still is able to volunteer as an ESL instructor.

-Schizophrenia sounds like a bitch, at least until it’s diagnosed. After that, there are treatments that seem to work. The prognosis overall is mixed, but I suspect that among people who actually receive treatment (medication/therapy), the prognosis is decent.

-Stage 2 colon cancer? You’re in for chemo, radiation, or surgery, or some combination of the three. Your life will be unpleasant for a short time, but you should be better eventually.

-Crohn’s disease? This just sounds like a lifetime of misery. Pain, frequent diarrhea, anal/oral ulcers, eye pain, skin lesions, arthritis, thrombosis, osteoporosis, neurological conditions. Oh Crohn’s, is there nothing you can’t do? No cure, you just have to manage it the best you can. If I had half the symptoms on that list, I imagine I’d strongly consider managing the symptoms by jumping off of a bridge.

5

Yes, Crohn’s. After working with patients with all of the above, I have to say that if I got Crohn’s, I’d strongly consider doing a radical bowel-ectomy and learn to live with an illeostomy as early on in the disease process as I could talk a surgeon into it. And even that wouldn’t necessarily cure anything.

6

Despite the advances in treatment, I’d still say HIV. Partially because of the stigma.