The Lighter Side of: More Pain

When our bodies start to malfunction, we are usually left with a lot of unanswered questions.
There is no *why*.

That is something you never really get used to... The idea that you are pushed into this realm of pain that cannot be explained and cannot be cured, so far as our current understanding.

When we see other people suffering with inexplicable illness, we often think to ourselves: 'how can they live like that?'
We see their strength to push through unbearable pain levels and we begin to appreciate our own situation.

If you find yourself in a room with people who are all chronically ill, with varying types and levels of illness and pain, like a Chronic Pain Centre for example, you may be surprised. After hearing all of the different stories, the multitude of symptoms and medications and side effects, most people would prefer 'the devil they know' to what one of these other people have.
What we already have is illness we have grown accustomed to. We understand it, in part. We have realized the kind of pain and illness that we can handle without hitting our breaking point.

The Lighter Side of more pain is that every new symptom or side effect we must face becomes another triumph in our book. Not because it is easy. Not because it is curable. It's like an arsenal, or a logbook of everything we have faced and survived. We can look back at all of the pain and suffering we experienced and we begin to realize our strength.
We are so much stronger than we give ourselves credit for.
No one wants to live with pain.
No one wants to experience new illness and new pain. We often think that what we are currently facing is all that we can handle, but then something else pops up and we rise to the occasion.
Not always, of course.
We each have our own breaking point.
We, as a race though, have also managed to figure out how to live with, push through, and further understand those breaking points. There are methods of treating PTSD, for instance, ways to get someone through a full mental breakdown, ways to keep people comfortable during the most severe trauma.

So, then, we look back and we take stock of everything we have been through. After the fact it can seem like a dream (or more of a nightmare), and we sometimes wonder how exactly we were able to get through all kinds of suffering.

We can't always get through everything, but we can get through a great deal more than we ever imagine ourselves able to fight through.
It almost feels like our own pain is tailored for us just the way we can handle it.

Just some random thoughts about pain.