Patricia Heaton Quotes

My mother started to suffer from multiple sclerosis, but nobody knew what MS was then. My father didn't - and later he suffered a great deal of guilt over that. It was an awful business and very fraught.

Oh, my goodness, when you're a mother and you just give birth to a child with spina bifida and - or Down's Syndrome or cerebral palsy, there's a bit of a shock you're going to have to go through, a bit of an adjustment curve.

Mothers and daughters generally have fairly complex relationships, and ours was made much more so by Mother's illness. She had Parkinson's disease, which was not diagnosed for a long time... All that made me very self-protective, because for one thing, I didn't want to get trapped.

My son, Sam, is 15 years old, and he's been a diabetic since he was 2. When you're a parent of a child with any kind of chronic illness, these things don't go away. You have a lot of good days, but some days you feel like you're losing bad.

My illness is excruciating and difficult to cope with. It takes over your entire life and causes more suffering than I can describe.

The only real experiences I've had with therapists were the ones who were working with me and my family when my mother was ill.

Stress exacerbates any problem, whether it's diabetes, heart trouble, MS, or whatever.

One of the great pleasures of having children is spending one-on-one time with them. Sadly, I could do that for only a few minutes at a time. I'd never say that ADD/ADHD is a gift or a blessing. And if someone says it is a gift, I'd love to return it.

In the beginning, when I first found out I had a disease that was incurable, emotionally I had to get used to the idea of being sick before I could think about making any other major decisions in my life.

I want to stand on a platform in the middle of Times Square and shout, 'You do not have to battle your Crohn's disease alone.'

I have a disease, but I also have a lot of other things.

I've never experienced chronic pain myself, but I have known many people over the years who have.

I don't think I realised how stressed I was, being a single parent. It was really, really stressful. It's not easy on anybody.

My daughter lived with my wife being ill since she was 2.

My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

I was putting on a stiff upper lip and trying to fulfill the obligations I thought were demanded of me, taking over my father's role of taking care of my mother... and having to be the recipient of her confessions and emotions but of a delusional nature.

I wrote 'A Boy and His Soul' that talks about how my mother had lupus and my dad dying of a heart condition.

I just want to say to anybody out there who suffers with chronic pain, I feel you. It takes over your life. It affects you emotionally, mentally, physically.

You know, I've been hit with a Greb boot in the face and I've been spat on. And my kids light up when they hear these stories. It really takes their minds off their troubles.

Reality is I'm sick all the time.

To have a child is to be impaled daily on the spike of responsibility.

As a carer for my disabled son, I understand just how hard caring is, at the best of times. I know how important it is for families to get the support they need.

I would not have had the same personal commitment to Alzheimer's disease if it had not been for my mother and my upbringing.

I don't know many people without pre-existing conditions.