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Dating with a Chronic Illness

I'm 27.  A lot of my friends are married, engaged, having kids, let alone dating.  Dating was done ages ago when people were in high school and college.  For the past 7 years, I have either been sick, been busy trying not to get sicker, or just plain old unattractive because of Cushing's.  

I'm 27 as of March 26, and I'm just now starting to think about dating.  I'm not really sure how to go about it, and I feel old to be doing this now, especially in the small town I live in where everyone knows your business.  I don't know a whole lot of people, and even if I did meet someone, when do you bring up that you have this crazy disease that will follow you around your whole life?  I don't want anyone to be looking at my scars or seeing the extra skin from all the weight I've gained and lost.  When do you bring up the fact that since you have this other genetic illness, you don't want biological children?  How do you even approach that subject?  The easiest answer is to date someone that already knows about all of this.  But that gives me exactly... no options.  

Because of all the messiness with Cushing's and everything that came along with it, I have been too busy to even think about dating, and have avoided it altogether until now.  Now that I look better, like myself again, more and more of my friends and family seem to bring it up. Am I looking?  Have I tried Match.com?  It would be nice to kind of get my feet wet, but I'm not looking to get married anytime soon.  (BTW - family and friends who have suggested these things - I appreciate it.  It's nice to feel like a normal person again that deserves to be asked these questions, even though I may feel like an awkward 13 year old when you do ask!)

Someday, this will seem like a silly thing to worry about, but over the past few weeks, it seems like a HUGE deal!  I guess it's a nice distraction from all the scary medical stuff!

If you have any suggestions, or if you've asked yourself these questions before, or others, please let me know!!!

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