What do sick people need?

Well, one of the good things about being sick, is that you (hopefully) get to be better at understanding other people who are sick

I'm sure in the past I've been pretty self absorbed, busy having adventures and doing other 'important' things, and also not really understanding of what its actually like...

So I thought share some of the things that I've learnt about what sick people need:

- Places to lie down in the warm and the quiet and in the sunshine.
- Nourishing, frozen home-cooked meals that can be heated up in a couple of minutes of standing up time!
- Knowing that there are people they can ask for help
- Knowing there are people who care
- Knowing that people don't think you are a burden
- A few pats of the head, some hugs and reassurance
- Audio books or podcasts
- To be in control of their own energy and time expenditure. To be allowed to be a bit 'selfish' temporarily, because getting better is the least 'selfish' thing you could do.
- Any sort of miscellaneous practical help (e.g. cleaning. Bedsheets changed)
- Beautiful nature things to gaze at
- Sometimes to be told obvious things like 'take a panadol' or 'don't go for a walk', because sick people can often be brain fogged and irrational.
- Really sick people need 'nursing' – having things brought to them, being reassured, having the things they're worried about looked after. Unfortunately this is hard if there is no person who is able to do this for you.
- Sometimes really sick people need somebody else to do the asking for them, because its really hard to ask for yourself.