Pain Warriors

We all know pain when we feel it.  Stub your toe in the middle of the night, and trust me, you know pain!  As children, we skinned out knees and maybe even broke a bone and we knew what pain felt like.  Each and everyone of us has felt physical pain at some point in our lives.  At the time, we think that nothing could possibly hurt quite as much, and we may have even thought that no one else had ever experienced anything quite as bad.  If the problem is severe enough, we will go to the doctor or to the emergency room to be treated.  Within a few days, or sometimes weeks, we are back to our old selves - the pain a distant memory.

For those of us who suffer with chronic pain, this, unfortunately is not the case.  Our pain does not go away after a few days, or weeks, or even years, in many cases.  Most of the time, we know the causes for the pain that we feel day in and day out.  Perhaps we have back problems which required surgery and it didn't solve the problem.  Many with arthritis, both RA and OA, experience devastating daily pain.  We feel the deep tissue ache that comes with fibromyalgia.  Some, however, have no explanation as to the source and cause to the pain they are experiencing, and most doctor's are at a loss as to how to treat them.  And when a cause can't be found, many are told it's all in their head or they are simply trying to get drugs.  It is devastating to the sufferer.

Most of us who battle chronic pain on a daily basis face ridicule, rejection, and disbelief more than once along the way.  Friends and family may turn on us, not understanding why the pain doesn't go away.  They tell us we've changed and that we aren't the same person.  No, we aren't the same person.  Many days, it takes every ounce of energy we have just to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom.  We don't have anything left to entertain you with.  On other days, when the pain maybe a little more under control, they will tell us that they don't understand why we couldn't get out of bed yesterday, and yet we can to the store today.  The truth is, we don't understand it either!  We simply do what our bodies allow us to do when they allow us to do it.

Those of us with chronic pain refer to ourselves as pain warriors.  We fight every single day to overcome our limitations.  We often push ourselves to keep working long after the pain can leave us curled up in a ball at the end of the day.  We push ourselves to go to our children's sporting and school events, despite that the fact that sitting on hard bleachers,, often in the cold or heat, will put us in the bed for the next several days. We fight to try and keep our family's life as normal as possible, even though there are days when we wonder how we are going brush our teeth, much less do laundry and cook dinner.  But push on we do, because we aren't quitters!

I have come to know so many people who are living with chronic pain, and every day I am amazed at the strength they show in the face of the scourge of this debilitating condition.  I see people facing life, and the future with hope, despite the pain that they feel every single day.  I see people finding the courage to stand up for themselves when faced with ridicule about their condition.  And I see people willing to give love and support to another who is going through the same thing.  They give their time, their experience, and their heart to one another.  And while I wish that no one had to wear the mantle of pain warrior, I couldn't be more proud to stand up with and for the amazing men and women I know who are fighting this battle.