An Unwelcome Guest: Living with Chronic Pain

When you have lived with chronic pain for a while you come to know exactly what to do when it shows up in your life–nostrils flared, clamoring to be let in, so noisy you can’t turn him away. Whenever he (or she) shows up, you blame yourself for his appearance. Did you let stress habits way with you? Did you not sleep well or long enough? Did you walk too fast, too long, too soon? Did you eat something you shouldn’t have, or forget to take something you should? The more you fret over what you’ve done that you could’ve done differently the more pain makes its presence known.
You know what you need to do, but taking a break or slowing down in a society that demands that we all be-do-have more, can seem almost treasonous. Sleeping a full eight hours is a luxury for babies and small children. Not rushing from point A to point B is what the old do – not someone in the midst of the so-called prime of life.
After a few days of this trying to pinpoint what triggered the pain flare, you realize that a smoking gun is, after all a smoking gun—you will not find who or what left it, or pulled the trigger. In fact, you know that likely nothing you’ve done has any correlation to the pain you’re in. For you, chronic pain is simply a part of your being – as routine as breathing, but as wretched as a bellyache.
For a day or two, you blame the weather or climate change, or Obama – you read your horoscope, having given up on science. Pinpointing the cause will not end the sy...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs