What is a chronic illness?
A chronic illness is a sickness that a person has for a very long time. Some chronic illnesses last for a few months or a few years (some kinds of cancer last for a few months or years). Other chronic illnesses last for a person’s whole lifetime (like juvenile diabetes mellitus or sickle cell anemia). Further examples of chronic illnesses are asthma, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, primary immunodeficiency, epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. When a kid has a chronic illness, it may mean that she has to be absent from school because she is going to a doctor’s appointment, she is getting treatment or she is in the hospital. It can be very hard to keep up with school work when you have to be out of school a lot. Kids who have to miss school because of a chronic illness miss getting to be at school and they miss their friends.
