I'm often uncomfortable. Not in pain exactly, but annoying, niggling, buzzing, don't forget I'm here uncomfortableness. And sometimes pain.
We all have our Achilles and my back has never been particularly good. I was diagnosed with a mild scoliosis in my teens which was bizarrely taken back and claimed to be 'one leg shorter than the other'. Yes, that was the medical diagnosis. Regardless, I'm crooked.
After having babies, well, things went rapidly downhill. Some mornings I feel like I'm pushing eighty and Eighty's heavy. Most days, though, I just get on with things and ignore the tension, the tightness, the soreness. Like a tightening noose, it gets more frantic as the day goes on. My shoulders ache, my lower back stiffens, my whole body tenses. Particularly busy days will make even my eyelashes feel tight.
As I stood at my kitchen counter at 3am last Sunday night preparing Mermaid cakes, I started thinking about how lovely it would be to be pain free and 'straight' for just a day or two. How nice it would be to not have to consider my back every time I picked up my children. To be able to skip out of bed rather than creak. To just be in the moment.
Pain makes everything just a little bit less enjoyable. I can't imagine what it would be like to live with 'real' pain 24/7. My heart goes out to people in that situation.
Have you experienced chronic pain or know someone who does? How do you cope with something that constantly makes you feel bad? How do you manage?