This One Time, In the Hospital...

"Oh! I'll come back later...."

Consider this post #2 about dating with a chronic illness. As a teenager. 

People have a tendency to forget that people with disabilities and people with chronic illnesses date people, and that involves expressing your affection in a, ahem, physical, ahem way. 

When you stay in a children's hospital, this gets to a whole new level of weird.

When I was in my final year of high school I had a boyfriend and we were together for a year.

I was admitted for a couple of weeks twice while we were together.

One time, my boyfriend came to visit me, and all was quiet so we snuck some good snogging time. You know, played some tonsil tennis.

Sure enough, a nurse came barrelling into my room, caught us sucking each other's faces off. 

Needless to say she made an awkward, abrupt exit, only to return 10 minutes later with her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and my shit-eating grin beaming up at her from my bed. 

It's ridiculous to think that a teenager will not think of engaging in dating and sexual activity when they have a chronic illness or disability. That's a silly naivety on adults' part. Adolescents are teenagers first, patients second. 

The same goes for drugs and alcohol, but that's another post for another day.