As I work day in and day out, smile at all my coworkers, get over animated with the little kiddies at our school ... I am dying on the inside from all of the pain. Every movement makes me ache, my body burning from head to toe, yet there is no one there that would ever know anything is going on. I can't blame people for not knowing, since I keep putting on a pretty good act, but part of me doesn't want the entire world pitying me every time they see me! The other part of me just wishes that these people could somehow understand what I'm going through, although I would never wish this illness on my worst enemy!

Right now I'm trying to work out flying out to Minnesota for Mayo Clinic's pain rehab program. I'm really wondering what all my coworkers will think when a seemingly normal looking/feeling individual (at least in their eyes) leaves work for 3 weeks for medical reasons.

It's nice to know that there are wonderful people like all of you who could relate and really know how a person with this illness feels. I'm just so sorry that you have to experience this.