The Cost of Pain: Shedding Life, Shedding Love

   
This week on MyRACentral, I muse about the cost of pain - financial, sure, but primarily social:

"If you live with chronic pain, you are not alone. Pain affects more than 76 million people in the US, more than cancer, diabetes and heart disease combined. It is estimated that conditions involving chronic pain cost the US economy more than $100 billion a year in healthcare expenses, lost income and lost productivity. And that's just the money part of the equation."

The rest of the post is here.
  
 

Comments

Lindsey said…
I love your blog.  You are very thoughtful, and you articulate those thoughts so well.  I am not in chronic pain, nor do I have RA.  I follow you because of your mind.  Perhaps my speeded up life could be better lived if I were to slow down.  Your posts about being forced to live a slower life because of your pain are useful to me and cause me to think about life from a different perspective.  This is a good thing for everyone to do.  
I also enjoy your humor.  I tell my friends about your blog.  Thanks for doing this.
2:51 PM
Diana said…
You have helped me acknowledge a loss that I had not fully comprehended. And until acknowledged, it cannot be grieved.
So thank you for helping me take the first steps.
I am so blessed in my life to have my partner, Oscar, but all the rest of my friends drifted away. I have a few, very good and very valued friends in my life, and the potential for more. And I am grateful.
6:29 PM
Meg said…
I seem to go in and out of severe flares every 4 or 5 years and everytime I emerge, I look around and discover someone else, or several someones, have disappeared from my life.  I am blessed with 3 dear friends and a wonderful family who stay by me no matter what and a husband who sticks by me and cares for me when I can't care for myself.  But I mourn those friends who have disappeared from my life along the way.

Thank you for saying all the things that I wish I could say.  I love your blog and recommend it frequently. 
7:24 PM
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