The Million Dollar Question...

Someone recently asked me what is feels like to have Behcet's. What she specifically wanted to know is what does the pain feel like on a daily basis.

This is the million dollar question, isn't it my Behcet friends?

First, you need to understand that everyone tolerates pain differently. Pain to one person doesn't mean pain to another. One woman might be able to give birth without medication while another may need an epidural or more. One man may be able to handle a sprained ankle without medication while another may not. Some cultures embrace pain. Others do not. Some people even give and get pain during sex. Wait...what?! Ya heard me. Gender, Culture, Race, Religion, emotional state and many more factors all play a role in how pain affects you. Don't believe me? Do some research...

Every day I have pain. Yes, every single day since getting sick in February of 2011. The question is if the day is going to be a day of minimal pain, medium pain, or severe pain. I've pretty much learned to classify it as those three categories. It makes it much easier to explain to others.

Here's a list of general symptoms/problems I have on a daily basis. Please keep in mind this list can change on a daily basis-see my February Magical Bag of Behcet's Theory to better understand:
knee pain
finger pain
finger swelling
finger stiffening
ankle pain
ankle swelling
hip pain
hip burning
eye pain
eye burning
eye redness
light sensitivity
feet numbness
cold feet
occipital headaches with occasional temporal headaches
fatigue that varies from little to severe


How else can I explain what it's like to others? When I walk my legs feel heavy. It's like I have weights tied to them but I don't. You know the feeling you get when you work out and have used areas of your body you haven't in years and the feeling you get the day after? The sore feeling? Well, imagine that but times it by 100. That is the feeling I have every single day all day long. My body feels like it's been beaten and bruised by a baseball bat in it's muscles and bones. Then there are the severe days when it feels like I've been hit by a semi-truck. I'm not even going to describe this because it's exactly like I said, a semi-truck. You figure it out.

Now for most of us we are lucky enough to have found doctors who are compassionate enough to understand that we are truly in pain and need pain medication. However, there are some of us who have yet to find a caring and understanding enough doctor and have been pushed around, treated like a drug seeker, treated like there is nothing wrong with us, are being beaten down, and are trying to find  a doctor and care team who can help us.

I beg of you for those who are reading this, if you know someone who has a chronic disease or chronic pain, please try to understand where that person is coming from. Don't be so quick to judge because it just might be you some day in their shoes and what will you do?

I chose the quote below because I think there are a lot of good people in the world but we often hear more about the bad ones. I also think that we often lose touch with how we treat others at times because we are so engrossed on what is going on in our own lives. Would it kill us to be more kind to others? I feel we as humans have lost that basic human kindness that was once so popular. The simple hello's, thank you's, opening doors, etc.

"The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have the capacity do not possess it." Simone Weil