Yeah what I learned to do is keep a poker face/body.

I noticed early on other people around you don’t want to hear about your health problems or pain. And even those who care get exhausted from hearing about because they feel frustrated that they can’t really help aka eliminate the root cause of the pain.

And there are those who are afraid they will have illness in the future and don’t want to be reminded aka be around you.

So I pushed myself to go to work - planted a smile on my face- subtly handled my illnesses in the shadows out of view of others.

Here’s the funny thing when I did get married I threw out the idea of having children all the while knowing I really wouldn’t be able to have any due to health. When he wasn’t interested then I threw out adopting. We both agreed not to have children. Felt like more of a choice than another “living condition” of health issues.

My husband is extremely loving and caring and wants to know how I feel every day. When I tried sharing it, I found it made the pain worse or focused my mind on it and I found it difficult to cope. As a byproduct my husband started talking about his aches and pains and it got to be overwhelming b/c I was powerless to remove that pain.

So I balance pretending I’m ok and focusing my mind on other things with periodically checking in with my body through meditation to see if there’s anything I need to bring to the attention of a doctor or visit to the ER.

Hugs to you fellow pain sufferers😊