It’s that invisible illness wringing life and energy out of your body.
It’s a faceless disease, though it has many names.
The alphabetical soup names make your head spin: CRPS, TMS, CFS, MPS, Allodynia, Fibromyalgia, Auto-Immune-disease-with-no-name. The different labels represent a categorization of a group of symptoms from which PAIN is the worst.
However, neither you nor the many physicians and specialists you consulted could determine what’s the direct cause of the pain.
After each visit you are being sent home with one more prescription drug.
You are wondering how long before you find a drug to extinguish the all-consuming fire in your body.
You are tired and hopeless longing for a magic relief and healing.
The pain strikes despite any obvious injuries. And continues for extended periods of time. Sometimes pain subsides, and then reoccurs unexpectedly.
You feel emotionally exposed and unsettled because you never know when the next wave will be rolling in. You choke and your stomach churns when the pain forces you to once again cancel family/friend-time for the nth time.
Nausea wells up and your head spins. You know this vertigo so well – no regular schedule but thick clouds of brain fog. The next twenty-four hours seems ominous.
It’s a never-ending life sentence of PAIN.
Does it feel so far in the past that you can’t even recall when it all started or how it feels with>out pain?
Maybe you experienced a lingering lower back pain twitching for some time. Menial tasks like folding laundry would fire the twitch into a full “throwing-your-back-out” painful episode lasting for several weeks. Over years the pain episodes became more frequently and lasted longer.
A stiff neck and frozen shoulders making everyday tasks impossible for three to six months or lasted for years like mine?
While still active (light years in the past) bursitis of the hips or knee pain stopped you from playing your favorite sports for months on end.
Headaches bothered you for some time. Unnoticed, it spiraled into migraine attacks. Even weather patterns induce migraines.
Your sensitivity for certain food groups ramped up. Food allergies spun out of control. Weight loss set in.
Your favorite music morphed into noise. Loud voices and laughter make you want to pull a pillow over your head to silence the irritation in your brain.
Whatever the case, let me know how your journey started and progressed over time. I would love to hear from you.
From your Sister-in-Pain.