This diary is actually late. When I wrote my last diary, I commented that if no one minded, I would write another diary entry about what RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) is "tomorrow". Well, "tomorrow" was last Saturday, and as happens with most of us, time got away from us.
But I don't want to talk about just RSD. I think that would be ignoring a bigger picture, and a bigger problem in our country.
Instead I am going to be talking about how those with chronic pain are treated harshly in this country and looked down on as if they were second class citizens. This diary is about getting the word out their about chronic pain, and making the doctors and legislatures listen.
I have to say that in the diagnoses of my disease, I was lucky. It took the doctors one year to figure out what was going wrong in my body. Back then, doctors were like gods. I figured if you had a white coat you had earned it and therefore knew what you were doing. Keep in mind I was only 14.
It wasn't probably till my senior year of High School that the pain became unbearable. That was also the time that the doctor I was seeing to help me with my pain gave up. He simply told me he didn't know what else to do.
I will not make this story a long one, because there are more important things to say. But after ten years, I am still in constant pain; and it still affects everything I do.
Other people are not as lucky as I was. They go five, six, some people up to fifteen years of waiting for someone to tell them they aren't crazy. This isn't for lack of trying. They go to the country's best doctors, all of which tell them stories about chronic pain that are completely not true. Getting the word out will help find these people, and let them know that they aren't alone
Being diagnosed does not mean that you are free from people staring at you and doctors unwilling to see you. Any new type of doctor that I sufferer tries to go to can be a horrible ordeal. Finding a dentist, when every puff of wind or gentle touch can send excruciating pain up the spine, is seen as an impossible task.
Somehow though, many of these people go on. They live happy, productive lives and fight everyday for that right. That is why they deserve the attention from doctors and legislatures to make it more possible for them to find all the things they need in life. It is for the people fight w/the disease and in some little way do, and for those who lay in bed in too much pain to even walk and wish they could do exactly the same that we must do this. I hope some of you will join me, and hopefully we can make a difference in this world.
-earthy
"yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promisary note; today is a gift: treasure it."