What does a 'chronic illness' mean?
A long term illness. Like i've been suffering with Crohn's disease symptoms for the past year (stomach cramps, chills, fatigue, loss of appetite, a bit of blood when i go number 2, diarrhoea), and bad arthritis in my spine, neck, hips, shoulders, knees etc. (I hate flare ups for both of these. sucks big time).
Not sure if I have crohn's but the arthritis started happening about the same time I started having crohn's symptoms (which was last October).
an everlasting illness/one that keeps coming back. (according to most other answers i am incorrect (in that it lasts forever) so... I'm not Sure)
Sadly, Chronic illness lasts a long time. Additionally, one professor explains chronic illness as “an altered health state that will not be cured by a simple surgical procedure or a short course of medical therapy.” What makes chronic illness or its effects so challenging is not just the nature of the sickness and the treatment but that it has to be endured for so long. Furthermore, the effects of chronic illness are seldom limited to just the patient. “Most people are part of a family,” states the book Motor Neurone Disease—A Family Affair, “and the shock and anxiety felt by you [the patient] will be shared by those close to you.” This is confirmed by a mother whose daughter had cancer. “Every member of the family is affected,” she says, “whether or not they show it or are aware of it.”