Another voice of chronic pain

Today I'm sitting in my PJ's at the computer yet again. I'm mad at my weak body because I was trying to make plans with a friend to go down to Olympia for a political protest. My body has other plans. Apparently sleep is ruling my life again, get it while I can, and need lots of it.

I follow a blog of another person with a different type of chronic pain and illness, but who voices many of the same frustrations that are universal for all of us who deal with this.

The post from yesterday is something I thought I'd share. You can read it all here. But what I thought was particularly important were the last few lines. Having a diagnosis and plan of medical attack to treat it is much more important to patients than some medical professionals may realize.

"I can still feel the relief deep within my soul. It was then that I finally accepted for the most part my sickness. I still have my moments of depression, and anger, but I’ve learned to look for the positive things in my life. A simple smile and puppy dog kisses are worth a million dollars to me. You never really appreciate the small things until you have your life turned upside down from a chronic illness. I have said to a lot of people appreciate your health because you never know when the rug of health will be pulled out from underneath your feet."

A couple months ago I wrote in my facebook about how frustrated I was that I still don't have a formal diagnosis after over three years of seeing doctors for what I deal with. I'm diagnosed with RA, but AS is still only speculated, not diagnosed (even though there are mounds of tests and symptom journals to prove this.) When I wrote about this a good friend rightfully replied that going this long without an answer is just insane, if it was something life threatening their patient would be dead! He's so right, and I am thankful that this is "just an auto-immune disorder" and not something life threatening, but even still. Having a diagnosis does make a huge difference. This friend is currently studying to be an EMT. I'm very proud of him for this as I know at least one more person getting into the medical field will have the right frame of mind when it comes to helping people.

I anxiously await next friday. That's when I go back to my nurse to hear the results of my recent MRI. I'm very interested in knowing the results as something from it prompted the Rheumatology clinic to reschedule my follow-up appointment 3 weeks sooner that what had been originally planned. I'm not really fearing that it's going to show anything scary. Mostly I'm assuming that my scans do in-fact show spinal fusion and that this is why my back pain has been as severe as it has been lately.

Well, I really do hope that others will read the post I'm referring to in this one. The only thing I'd add to my own version of this is that my faith is of great importance to me. Without it I wouldn't see much reason in living day in and day out through this. I want others to know that with Christ I have hope, and others with chronic pain and illness can have hope too. It can feel like our symptoms rule us sometimes. But with each day things can improve just as much as they can stay the same.

Keeping my hope in Christ, while livin' in my PJ's.
Cryss