Chapter 13 - Nora Had To Learn That Breathing Trouble Was Not Embarrassing
The hardest recovery was not legal.
It was medical confidence.
Nora began hiding symptoms.
At school, she once waited too long to tell the nurse she was wheezing because she didn’t want classmates to think she was “dramatic.”
Her pulmonologist addressed it directly.
“Nora, what is the rule?”
She looked down.
“Tell someone early.”
“And your medicine?”
“Use it how you told me.”
“And if someone says you’re exaggerating?”
She looked at me.
Then answered:
“I still tell.”
That became our rule.
No shame.
No earning medication.
No waiting to prove symptoms were severe enough.
Her anxiety improved too once the conflict disappeared.
Not because asthma had been psychological.
Because fear had been amplifying everything around it.
The body and mind had both been under stress.
May you like
Treating one did not invalidate the other.
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