<p>I won't specify anything due to the worrying that someone I know in real life might see this.
I might be pulled out of school a lot, and I have already loaded myself with APs/honors but I don't want to drop them. Please don't try to convince me to, I didn't know how serious my conditions were, but I still don't want to give up. I just came back from my doctor's visit recently, I started having problems a few months ago but they weren't a big deal to me at the time. It's not that life threatening just something I have to deal with.</p>
<p>I just want to read some of your stories. Honestly it can be anything from non-serious to serious. (Migraines, anemia, heart problems, allergies, etc) also are any of you taking any medications? </p>
<p>So much depends on YOU and YOUR HEALTH. If these are mental health issues, please deal with them now as they will not magically improve by ignoring them or try to power through them. If they are physical issues, you need to get well-evaluated by your doc and possibly specialists to figure out how best to handle the health issues, how permanent or temporary they are, whether the heavy academic load is OK given these health issues.</p>
<p>Our kids had chronic health problems from ages 10 through college and beyond. S took a very heavy academic load, including lots of honors and AP courses. He was able to handle the academics well, even thoough he was NOT able to physically attend 1/4 to 1/2 of most the academic year for his HS years. College was better for him, because he had more control over his schedule.</p>
<p>Our D seemed to have a worse time trying to balance HS academics and her chronic illnesses where she missed about the same number of days as S. She also was able to do better academically and physically in college, where she had more control over her own schedule.</p>
<p>We took both kids to many specialists–during the school year and over the summers, trying to find the best treatments for them. Mostly the docs were impressed by how well the kids were functioning and mostly afraid to give them any meds, so for the most part they didn’t have meds. D did finally find a doc who specialized in her condition and he helped by giving her weekly B12 shots and other medications for her condition so that she could graduate from college in spite of her low stamina due to her chronic health conditions. She is now seeing another doc as well who is working to treat her underlying condition with some supplements and an antiviral. It has been a long and challenging 14+ years and we are glad our insurance has covered this pretty well.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how others’ experiences in handling chronic diseases will really help YOU, as each condition is so different, especially in how well or poorly controlled it is, progression (or not), support patient receives from school and family, and so many other factors. This is especially true because there are such a myriad of physical and mental health conditions where folks can tell GREAT and not so good outcomes.</p>