Advice for Veterans Who Live With Chronic Illness
There has been a lot of research and funding that has gone into medical advances for chronic illnesses. This is because there are more people living with chronic conditions than ever before. These conditions can often be debilitating and require constant care. But the advances in living with a chronic illness that has occurred over the past twenty years are quite remarkable. Doctors can now diagnose conditions like Crohn’s disease, osteoarthritis, and Parkinson’s disease with much more accuracy than they could before. These improved diagnostic tools give doctors a better understanding of what is going wrong inside the body and how to fix it. Thanks to services like telehealth, doctors are seeing an increased success rate in treating chronic illnesses.
Veterans Suffer a Higher Rate of Chronic Illness
The Department of Veterans Affairs has found that up to 20% of veterans are impacted by a chronic illness. These illnesses are often associated with PTSD, cancers, and injuries sustained in combat.
These veterans have seen a higher rate of chronic illnesses than the general population. It is important to note that it is not just the combat veterans who are impacted by these illnesses, but many other veterans as well.
While the exact number of these illnesses is unknown due to the difficulty in measuring them, we know that they can be devastating for those who suffer from them.
If you’re a veteran and looking for support, your local American Legion can be a wonderful resource for you to get information and help with a variety of veteran-related issues like health care, career advice, and education. According to The American Legion Department of Connecticut, The American Legion’s success depends entirely on active membership, participation, and volunteerism. Reach out here to join, volunteer, or donate.
Managing Your Own Care
Being chronically ill means having to deal with the double-edged sword of managing your condition on a daily basis and also having to manage it as a part of your work life.
You may not realize it, but managing a chronic illness can be exhausting. You need to manage your own emotions, manage doctors, take care of your children, and you also need to find time for yourself. Find a support group, focus on small successes, get enough sleep, exercise, and practice self-care through hobbies, interests, or activities.
Another way to manage your health is by keeping your medical files and documents organized. If you need to share files with doctors, family, and caregivers, PDFs are often the preferred format over Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. You can use an online tool that allows you to convert to a PDF document by simply dragging and dropping them into the tool.
Help With Home Ownership
Many people who suffer from a chronic illness have trouble earning enough income to buy their own home and can be subject to the whims of the landlord and market with their monthly housing expenses.
However, if you’re a veteran, you can take advantage of some of the many VA Home Loan benefits such as no down payment on home purchase loans, lower interest rates, and no monthly mortgage insurance premiums that will help keep your monthly payments low. To make homeownership more attainable for servicemembers and veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs established the VA Home Loan, which guarantees a portion of the loan and enables them to provide you with more favorable loan terms. This guarantee allows lenders like Pennymac to offer home loans to service members and veterans who may otherwise not be able to qualify for a conventional loan. Contact them to learn about VA interest rates today. And check out this link for some of the best cities for veterans to buy a home.
The future of chronic illness looks more hopeful than ever before. It seems that the diagnosis of chronic illnesses is not as bleak as it used to be. Though there is still a long way to go, we are seeing progress and hope for a better chronic illness future.
