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tipper1207 View More Posts I found this letter better inspirational and very true. I have copy it and given copies of it to friends and family members that do not understand how it feels to be in chronic pain. I hope that it will become useful to some of you. By the way, this an adaptation by a letter written by Bek Oberin, Enjoy.












TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY :

I look normal. Don't let my outward appearance fool you; I am in pain. I am not the same person I was a year ago, or 2 years ago, or 4, depending on when it last was you saw me. I look healthy. I am not.

My condition changes from day to day, sometimes even hour to hour. Today I might be able to walk with you a few miles; tomorrow I may not be able to get up off the couch. A week ago, I felt almost human; next week I may feel like something less than what the cat drags in. I may want to do all the same things I use to: to work out, take long walks, socialize, keep some sembelance of household order, but I may not be capable of it.

If I say "maybe later", please understand and accept this for what it is, which is not an excuse, it is a reason. I don't enjoy my new limitations; I hate it. I might even be physically able to do today what you wish for me to do, but if I know without a shadow of a doubt that pleasing you will mean for me later an incredible amount of pain, I must say no. I'm not lazy. I just hurt.

I absolutely do not want pity. There is no reason to feel sorry for me--life is not perfect, and life happens to us all. This is the hand I have been dealt, and I intend to play it out. I don't blame the world for what I suffer, I don't rally against God. This is no one's fault. Not even my own.

I do not crave attention. I didn't decide one day that I was tired of living like a normal person, and that the means to a life of never having to work, having my whims catered to, having friends and family treat me special, involved creating symptoms no one could see under a microscope. I loved my life the way it was; I was never depressed and I had plans. This isn't a cry for your attention. It just IS.

I don't feel sorry for myself. Why should I?, Things don't always work out the way you would like them to--this is one of those times, I can live with who I am now. I may not enjoy each day as much as I use to, but I still live for each day, and embrace whatever I can get out of life. Pain is my companion..but pain is not me.

The truly hard part--if you can not accept me for who I am now,
I am sorry for you. I won't waste precious energy chasing after you , to cling to a friendship that probably wasn't as strong as I had once believed it to be. I can not force myself to readopt who I was before and reassume the same roles. In this--preserving myself and my state of mind--I have to be selfish. If you can not accept that I might not be able to contact you every day as I did before, or engage in the activities we once did, whether it was traing together and working out together, or just bowling, then do me a favor, and let's quietly part ways with no ill feelings. My life is going in new directions, and for me that might not be a bad thing. If the changes I have gone through disturb you, hold your criticism. I don't need it. I don't want it

Life deals us all a bad hand occasionally. This is my turn. It happens. I accept. I hope you do too.
Posted on 05/03/09, 12:05 am