A Painless Birthday

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I turned 46 yrs old today and it was a pain free and crisis free day! The last

couple of years my birthday was fraught with illness, pain, or some kind of

crisis every time something was planned.

This year I didn't plan anything and I didn't worry about becoming a year

older and how I've aged before my time! And keeping that in mind I'd have to

say I had the best birthday in years!

My sweet hubby made sure he woke me up before he left for work just to give me

a kiss, an I love you, and Happy Birthday. Yesterday, he had flowers delivered,

a beautiful spring bouquet of jonquils, a day early but the sentiment was well

taken. He does something special each year.

Anyway, I just got a call from my neurologists office and my appointment for

next Wednesday has been rescheduled for the 25th of April! I'm hoping that the

pain levels will remain low till then. I understand that even doctors have

lives and they have emergencies, too, or just need time off.

Well, I hope most of you have had pain free or almost pain free days. I've

been spending some of my time familiarizing myself with the various chronic

ailments and I really appreciate the articles and discussions that this group

has to offer on them. Learning from people who actually experience the varieties

of chronic illnesses has helped me to cope with mine.

For years I would think that it was mostly psychological with me and I would

wait until I felt like was dying before I went to a doctor. However, sometimes I

felt like the doctor I was seeing thought it was all up in my head. I hadn't

realized back then how little understanding physicians and " normal " people had

for people who lived with pain.

It still exists today, but more and more exposure is coming to light and I

hope to find some way of contributing to that exposure.Because of a stigma

attached to Chronic pain issues thousands of people go undiagnosed and that is

such a sad reality.

I've read in other groups related to Chronic pain how people who don't have

this problem see us who do. That's mainly because they haven't walked in our

shoes or don't want to try and understand it. Most people will close their eyes

and their minds because most of us don't wear our pain on our sleeves.

One can see that someone has a mental illness by their behavior, one can see

alcoholics and drug addicts by their actions and physical deterioration, and

most other illnesses have physical attributes that can be seen.

With pain it is internalized and when it does affect us to a point where our

minds break then people only focus on the psychological aspect most people

think we are trying to get attention, they don't want to look at the underlying

circumstances.

All I know is that this group has helped me. I may not post much or when I do

it's usually to gripe. But I've been sharing the good days too and you are all

always in my prayers for good days or some remedy that will make your lives less

painful.

We many not see eachother face to face but to me you all have faces. I see

faces of compassion, love, hope, empathy, and individuals who are willing to

share their experiences of hope and pain to help a fellow human being.

The best gift anyone can give is the hand of friendship. I've been blessed a

hundred times over to have found a group of people who are willing to offer

empathy and friendship to people they don't know because they share a common

issue.

Bless you all and a big group hug!

J.

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