Sacrifice (Part 5): Muscle Cramps

I think it is safe to say that we have all suffered muscle cramps.
Those nasty cramps that come on suddenly and sharply and are so distracting we usually have to stop what we are doing immediately - no matter how enjoyable the activity.
We can feel it tightening, we can SEE it contracted, and sometimes we can stretch it out, but sometimes we just have to wait it out, like a bad menstrual or stomach cramp.

Have you ever had one that you absolutely could not stop?
Maybe in the side of your neck while reaching for something?
Have you ever had one while you were asleep and did not wake up right away? Those ones are the worst! It feels like your leg has been cramped for hours overnight and usually affects one's ability to walk properly the entire next day or two. Just like an aggressive and rigorous workout, the after effects can be brutal.

I want you to picture the worst muscle cramp you have ever had. The one that dropped you to the floor, wincing in pain, desperately trying to stretch or massage it out. So intense that you felt that pain for hours afterwards.
Extend that pain.
Imagine that cramp easing, then happening over and over again for the next hour. 30 second bursts of pain and 60 second rests. For an hour!

Now extend that.
Drastically.
First try to imagine how it would feel if that cramp lasted all day. No rest. No release.
Then try to imagine that cramp coming and going, with no actual schedule, nothing predictable, 3 or 4 times an hour for an entire week.

What do you feel like you would be able to accomplish?

If you had this horribly intense muscle cramp - the one that usually drops you to the floor - on and off for a major length of time, what would happen?
You might be able to prepare yourself a bit - anticipating the pain. You may find some coping mechanisms to handle these torturous moments a little better: things like breathing through the pain, sometimes people hold their breath, maybe you brace yourself, or perhaps you have found the perfect method of massaging it out. Maybe you cope by just taking a minute to stretch, changing positions, or focusing on your breath for the full minute of each episode, or maybe even using heat pads or cold compresses.
You don't exactly get 'used' to the pain, and the pain does not improve, but you find ways to get through the worst parts so that you no longer have to completely stop what you are doing.
You find ways to mask how much pain you are actually in, just so that you don't drop to the floor moaning in tears for the cramp to subside.
It does not get easier to handle, per se, but it does become easier to hide.
Each cramp is hell.
Every single time.
But you come to the realization that it may never stop, and you have to get on with life, so you find ways to work through it.

These types of cramps are common in many chronic diseases, and these cramps can occur ANYWHERE in the body. Muscles that you can feel and touch with your hands, muscles in between organs, your organs themselves, muscles in between the ribs, places you cannot get to. Places that cannot exactly be stretched out or massaged through the cramping pain.

Chronic Kidney Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Hypoparathyroidism, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Menstrual Cramps, Arthritis, Spondyloarthritis (like Ankylosing Spondylitis), dehydration, heat exhaustion or heat stroke, Celiac Disease, ALS, Nerve Compression, Dystonias, even just being low on electrolytes or vitamin D.

People with various different illnesses (hundreds more than mentioned here) experience debilitating cramps within their organs and all throughout their systems - internal and external - constantly.
All. The. Time.
Their entire lives.

Then you have people who have multiple illnesses that ALL cause cramping, all the time. That's just an entirely new realm of pain. Plus, cramping is often the most mild of symptoms of many illnesses.
To hide these multiple-times-an-hour cramps takes a ton of energy and focus. We sacrifice our attention and focus to literally just make it through a few minutes of cramping every hour.

It is amazing how many symptoms we become, sort of, accustomed to, to the point where these symptoms are rarely even mentioned. Cramping is always seen as a necessary part of so many diseases, and not often a dangerous part, so we glaze over them like they are not a big deal. But these cramps can be horribly painful and feel like they stop us in our tracks.
Don't underestimate the pain associated with cramping pains.