-
Photos of Yourself Before/After PF
A recent column on our sister site Pulmonary Hypertension News discusses one mom’s journey to understand her son’s feelings about photos. Colleen Steele’s son Cullen was diagnosed with PH as a child and had a heart-and-lung transplant as a young teen. Cullen hates to look at photos of himself from when he was sick. As a parent to a child with a terminal illness, Colleen was very good at documenting Cullen’s young life in photographs. She was hyper-aware of the value of photos of her son, in case he did not receive his lifesaving transplant.
Self-image is something a lot of chronically ill people struggle with. Whether it’s due to changes in appearance because of illness, medication side effects, or visual reminders like a canula or surgery scars, living with a rare disease can make it hard to feel at home in our bodies.
How do you feel when you see photos of yourself with PF? Do you struggle with self-love, and acceptance as your body changes? How do you treat yourself kindly when critical thoughts creep in?
Log in to reply.