Able bodied people have an incorrect idea of exactly what recovery is and how long it takes. Let me explain:

First of all, most data suggests that for each day in the hospital, it takes about three days to recover. Bodies aren’t built to be in bed for long periods of time, and they deteriorate quickly.

Plus, add on medication, withdraw, pro-longed symptoms, mental health issues, and the health condition it’s self you’re looking at months, baseline, for a severe medical issue that requires admission.

On top of that, the most prolonged issue is often finances. Have to be taken to the ER via ambulance? That’s a 3,000 dollar bill. Financial recovery is often the hardest component.

The combination of these things is hard to fully grasp, but I often tell people that it comes in waves. For me, two years post bone marrow transplant, I am still building muscle that I lost and adjusting. Why?

Because when you’re ill, for any reason, you lose an unfathomable amount. Things that you would never even dream. And figuring out what to fight to get back, attempting to put you life back together, and everything else takes time. A lot of time.

That’s why the United States is in a lot of trouble. Because able bodied people and employers do not understand, nor have they ever considered, that recovery is a prolonged series of hurdles that strain every part of our system.