i think i will i miss the support of this place thhank you all very much
dave

This was in the form of a letter when I used it about 2 years ago. My mother seemed to think I was lying, making too much over an ache of two. My children also thought that. Finally, on this (old) forum, somebody gave this letter to me to use. I sent it to my mother, letting her know that somebody else with chronic pain wrote it. In the beginning, it was like a miracle, but I was afraid it was too good to be true. Eventually, it was. But, now she (and they) believe me. I have taken my mom with me to the doctors, and have shown her MRI's, etc. She is 78 years of age. She lost my only other sibling to cancer at 46 years of age. Now, she is almost too attentive...afraid that she will loose me too. My grandfather had a very similar problem at T8/9 (with spinal cord compression. I understood (or thought I did) that his ribcage collapsed on his heart. Anybody ever heard of that? Anyway, I was afraid of being cut down if I sent her the letter...but, I sent it anyway. I think it is a good tool to help your family understand what you are going through. But, involving them is about as good.

sally

hello; I have never been involved in this talk communities before. But after reading your letter I had to reply. i have been dealing with chronic pain, depression and bipolar for many years. And it seams that one illness can sometimes affect the other or even all at once. When I read your letter it was like it came right out of my head. I have never really been able to explain or write my thoughts down. so i just wanted to thank you for doing it for me.
thanks and good luck catch

Hello catch,
I'll copy your post to a new thread so members can say "hi."
this link will take you to the Chronic Pain main forum page-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum10.html

we also have many other forums you might like to visit-
Main index page -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/

Hi. In fact the author is not unknown. It was written by a friend of my daughter when she was suffering really bad chronic pain from M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis).
Just try to imagine what it would have cost her to write it. Unbelievable.

peter, i don't doubt you, but this has been on this and different forums for over 10 years. do you have where she first published it?

Hi Curious, it was written by Bek Oberin in the early days of the Internet. She was a keen blogger and had (may still have) her own web site.
Here's a link that might satisfy your curiosity.
http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=3&gl=au
The article was originally titled,"An Open Letter To Those Without CFS."
It seems to have been hijacked a lot since then, so you will see slightly different versions around.
CFS was an early name for what is now more accurately known as M.E.
My daughter has had it severely for 16 years or so, and in the early days was in contact with Bek.
Incidentally, my daughter just informed me that Bek has changed her name to Ricky Buchanan.

I finally found someone that appears to know what chronic pain is, and how others around us react, they just don't realize how much it can hurt. I have chronic PN pain in my feet and work 8-10 hrs a day on my feet. Many don't understand why I have to get off them so much, nut your post hit the nail on the head. thank you, Frank

I have CP along with advancing parkinson's disease. I want so desparately to be "well" and "understood", but instead have lost my job , my friends, and soon my wife. All but one of my 3 kids don't "hate and despise me". And in exchange for this, I still love all of them deeply, give them all my money, and hope that they will be blessed with a chronic disease free life, so that they may NEVER have to suffer in isolation and silence.

Ok, am I the only one who has never seen that particular explanation before?? Thank you for bringing it back up, so people like me could see it. WOW, it totally hits the nail on the head. I find it so hard and exhausting trying to explain my actions or lack of, over and over.

I wish I could print it out and tape it to my back.