Nobody WANTS to go on meds. I get it. I took a week off work when I started HU because I thought I would be sick and disfigured. Didn't happen.

There are days when I feel resentful about having a chronic condition or wonder what unknown thing I did to cause it. Americans beat themselves up a lot for being sick. Lots of us have friends and family who are happy to denigrate our doctors' treatments because they read some stuff on the Internet or talked to somebody with a community college degree in business who runs a quack infusion clinic. My sister in law kept asking me why I was taking the HU if it wasn't making me better.

I think we all need to be aware of the cultural and familial factors that create fears and reluctance to accept our situation and trust our doctors.