--has a need to rail at the fates about this condition, I think.

My only advice is to try to do it at something inanimate--I tend to smack pillows. One should try to avoid misdirected enmity, if one can.

I do think that a major part of the problem here is that for many of us this is a "no-see um" condition. I've noticed, on my forays into Cornell Weill, that those with major motor components to their neuropathies, who may be using canes, walkers, wheelchairs, etc., seem to get much more immediate empathy from visitors (even sometimes from staff, who one would figure would know better). It's something other people can see, tangible evidence that something there's amiss. (Sort of correlatees wtih Liza Jane's observation that she's gotten more empathy for her spinal problems than peripheral neuropathic ones.) But for those of us whose symptoms are primarily sensory, there's no immediate visual cue for others to see, and their natural empathies don't engage (assuming they have natural empathies--for some observers, the sight of such equipment makes them run for the hills).

Too many of us have had those conversations that go:

"How are you?"

"Not so good, I'm in a lot of pain."

"Really, but you look so good."

Or some variation to that effect.

Some people will just never get it--at least until they experience some sort of neural pain. (The way diabetes/impaired glucose metabolism is going, and given the possibility of spinal problems for many, that may be an eventual probability for a lot of people, sadly.) I've sometimes said something to the effect of "imagine you've gotten sun poisoning all over your body and then someone rubbed it with steel wool", but apparently not enough people have that vivid an imagination--and the fact that I can say that makes people think that I am lucid enough that I can't be in that much pain.

In some situations, you can't win. That's why we have these boards.