What's next?

Today is a pretty good day, I guess. Minimal stomach pain; I was able to run some errands with my three-year-old in tow, and now I’m taking a quick break before I tackle some much-needed housework. You see, I spent the better part of the last week in pain- and now there is a pile of just about everything to be done. Today it’s a little better, the burning, cramping pain radiating from my lower abdomen seems to have lightened up a little. I can move around again without sharp cramps or an ache in my tummy that won’t let up.So I’ll get my house clean, and feed my family, and talk about the day with my fiancé in bed tonight. But then tomorrow… which will it be? Debilitating agony, or a not-so-bad day like today? Will I be able to get out of bed as easily as today? Or will I have to drag my aching body inch by inch through the tasks I face every day; the care of my child, the paperwork of my very part-time job, the errands and needs of my household. Will I have the energy tomorrow to even feel happy, or just grit my teeth and bear the pain and wait for bedtime?It’s a struggle to live with IBS, or any other chronic pain condition. I wonder sometimes how I have the will to keep going day after day. I don’t really consider giving up an option though, plus my family needs me far too much. So I face each day one at a time, wondering how I’ll make it through, but somehow I do.I wish sometimes that I knew someone who has struggled with severe IBS like I have, but for a far longer time. I want to ask- How the hell am I really supposed to keep going in the face of this awful pain? How have you made it so far, lasted so long? Except I get the feeling that the only way I can answer those questions for me is to find them within myself.An interesting thought to work on while I clean my house. And meanwhile, tomorrow will come whether it’s painful or not, and I’ll take it on like the rest of them.