Life's a Pain

Do you live in daily pain? What kind and how do you deal? Share below about your experiences. 

Chronic pain is something I have lived with since I was 3 months old and I was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF) (https://www.ctf.org/). In later blogs I will talk more about NF in the hopes to bring greater awareness. Of the many symptoms, one of the most difficult is the growth of tumors (neurofibromas) in various places throughout my body and the growth of an optic nerve tumor (i.e. optic glioma). These tumors can be very painful and do cause me a great deal of pain on a daily basis. Namely I have severe headaches (many times it feels like a hot knife is slicing into the side of my head). Because several of the tumors are entwined in nerves that shoot pain throughout my body as well. I also have some time of mass on my tailbone which causes a great deal of pain whether I am sitting or standing. 

As people facing daily pain can attest, sometimes it is just hard to get out of bed. However, battling pain has made me a more sympathetic person. This goes for physical and mental pain. In terms of physical pain, you need to have a certain mindset to get through each day. For me the pain is not going away (NF is incurable and the pain will always be there) and I never wanted to rely on pain medicine. So I look at pain as just another challenge that I need to meet. Similar to my OCD I see it as an obstacle that has been placed in my life that I need to overcome. 

In terms of my pain, I do not know anything different. I have been in pain since I was a baby and always will be so my mindset is to identify it but not allow it to win. I am sure many of you reading this have dealt with physical or mental pain (or both) at some point. You just can't let it win. You are not alone and many people deal with pain on a daily basis. Attitude is everything. Life is worth living. There is so much joy out there for you to find and to spread! Yes the pain can sometimes be insufferable but I always tell myself that the alternative, giving up, is not an option. 

I always tell myself that I am only promised today so I do not want to let pain beat me. I want to live my life and enjoy the time I have. Find your joy and focus on that, try to block out the pain. Why let the pain dictate your life? Focus on the things and people that make you happy. Live your life because pain doesn’t care, it will always be there. You are worth it and giving into the pain is not! 

Do you live in daily pain? What kind and how do you deal? Share below about your experiences.