Approximately 133 million Americans live with chronic disease, defined as a disease lasting three months or longer. A portion of people who fall into this category live with incurable, life-long illnesses that are often "invisible" and interfere with daily life. I'm one of them. My special condition cocktail is 1 part Crohn's disease, 1 part Fibromyalgia, 1 part depression and 1 part generalized anxiety disorder with a garnish of migraines. It's a kicker and not for the faint-hearted.

Almost everyone knows someone who lives with a chronic illness, but what that actually means may be elusive. The daily ins-and-outs of invisible illness usually isn't a topic that people want to talk about honestly because it's difficult to make sense of it. If we do share a slice of unadorned reality we're usually met with a mixed expression of horror, disbelief, and pity and quickly follow up with a "but it's okay!" and a change of subject.