The True Cost of Invisibility

Cost of Invisible Illness

$120.99…..Weekend plans made with friends—and canceled at the last minute, courtesy of a spontaneous flare

$90.75…..Cute athletic clothes purchased during a brief moment of health and energy, consigned to the bottom of the drawer after your usual exhaustion arrived. (Or thriftily traded out as an alternative to sweats, transforming the couch and binge-watching into a pseudo-sport)

$300.33…..Assortment of vitamins and supplements (half of which you can’t pronounce) picked up on the advice of friends, fellow invisible illness warriors, and crackpot doctors viewed on YouTube in the middle of the night

$200.47…..Fast food orders made after attempts at cooking a whole-food, non-GMO, non-processed, hand-made meal yielded something inedible and completely unrecognizable as a foodstuff

$5.72…..Tissue box (large), complete with repeated denials that the resulting piles in the trashcan resulted from frustrated crying

$13.01…..Five bags of baby carrots left to rot within the vegetable drawer because you can’t remember you bought the first bag, nor can you rub two synapses together to jot down a grocery list in the first place. (Or, if you do write one, you successfully leave it on the counter)

$57.27…..Twenty feet of kinesthetic tape purchased before you realized medical advice only recommends taping one body part at a time

$3.98…..Stickers collected with the misguided attempt to disguise your cane as something other than a medically-necessary walking assistant

$1000.00…..Four hours of therapy spent vehemently denying that you have any emotional baggage you need to unpack surrounding the limitations placed on your functionality. (No extra charge if you repeat the same arguments to friends or family who failed to ask for the privilege of serving as a second opinion)

$200.00…..Co-pays for trips to the Emergency Room that you likely argued against for a minimum of three hours with your significant other—and proceeded to fight about after receiving an ambiguous diagnosis

$4.65…..Three heads of lettuce left to dissolve into slime because you insisted on repeatedly challenging your stomach to eat salad again despite its blunt refusal to even look at a picture of greenery

Grand Total: Your social life, emotional well-being, basic thought processes, human dignity, and sense of peace

Or your twelve firstborns.