How to deal with seriously ill characters and what type of illness should I give them

Question

My heroine is seriously ill with something that can sooner or later take her life away at any moment. She takes medication regularly but refuses to undergo anything hardcore (like surgery or chemo or anything that would make her better or cure her for good). I have not figured out what or where the kind of illness she has yet since i am not a certified doctor with enough knowledge about the human body but i do want to be specific when it comes to symptoms or medication and its side effects.

I also don't know how much that illness should effect her daily life. She's an intelligent teacher with exceptional understanding and memory. She is swamped with work and responsibilities that don't often involve her career as a teacher but it also greatly affects her health.

She's rich, so money isn't an issue. She just thinks that she should live her life to the most instead of undergoing harsh treatments and so.

Is there any type of illness (that preferably includes attacks such as asthma) that hinders someone's day to day life but not as much as staying to bed all day and is curable under extreme medication? (Cancer is out since she has to work everyday for being a teacher and other tiring stuff)

Answer 1

You could google your character's symptoms and see what shows up!

But...

Does it have to be an existing illness?

It could be a realistic but fictional illness with the symptoms you "need" for the story to come together..

"She suffers from Mil-Ether-Kafosis. It's a mutation of the well known disease Ether-Kafosis, also referred to as 'Asthma' - though that has always been a misunderstanding." the certified doctor said, with no-one questioning the authenticity of the mentioned illness.

Since you are not a certified doctor, and unless your taget audience is 'certified doctors', is it really important if it is a real illness, or is it simply a tool for the story to play out the way you need it to?

You should probably still do some research, no matter what illness you find suitable.

I've enjoyed stories about various characters with illnesses and simply followed how the illness affected the story and characters, without needing to believe that the illness actually existed.

If you are not aiming for a "Raise awareness for x illness" kind of story, in my opinion, the specific illness simply needs to be believable. And we, as the audience for a story, will believe a lot.

If the story's already fictional, why not tailor it to suit your need?

I suppose it could draw unwanted attention towards the illness itself, which could be an issue if you're simply going for an "illness that fits". For instance, I have a character who's father is (or was) ill, and the illness itself is not important, but rather how it affected the people around him, mainly the main character.

So, if you 'invent' an illness, people may focus too much on the illness, rather than the part it plays in the story. This of course has everything to do with how your write the illness into the story and how relatable or realistic said illness is.

In my case, I just feel that 'cancer' would be too cliché.

Perhaps worth mentioning: My own work so far is science-fiction, so I'm sorry if I'm pushing your work into that genre.

Answer 2

If you can't find a specific illness, make one up.

The beauty of writing fiction is that it's imaginary. As long as something is believable, it works. I've seen characters that work and stress themselves so much - that they frequently run the recurring motif of having explosive nosebleeds. There are other characters that have made up extreme conditions that play to the plot.

Personally, I prefer writing ideas to the plot I've defined, and only using real life research as an anchor to keep realism in check.