Simple Answers to Stupid Questions

Errr... except the question is not stupid and the answer is not simple.

On May 8 I received a visitor via a Google search for:

is chronic illness something they label you when they can't find out why you are in pain?

Well. Yes. And no.

No, because often they understand why you are in pain (for a rather simple, surface meaning of "why": that is, you have a diagnosis, even if they don't know shit about why your body does what it does): you have arthritis, or neuralgia, or back pain, or a really fucked up ankle, or whatever. And the best way to describe that, really, is chronic pain. (Chronic illness, etc.) Because it's pain that isn't going to just go away -- which needs distinction, because the latter is how pain is thought of culturally in the US. It's something you're going to be living with, if not for the rest of your life, then for a long while yet. And it requires a somewhat different approach.

But yes, in a sense, because doctors do love to punt. It is a rare doctor who does their job when it comes to the difficult patients, and patients who present with symptoms for which there seems to be no cause are hard to deal with, both because of the obvious, and because they are, honestly, just a general pain in the ass. They hurt and they need help, but you don't know why they hurt and so you can't really treat them effectively, and because the treatments are at least initially ineffective they keep coming back to try to fix it, and you don't have the faintest clue where you should go next.

This is not to say that doctors -- and other medical professionals, from the nurses to the receptionists to the therapists to the recordkeepers and the billers -- are therefore bad people. Most of them are doing the best job they can. Most of them have at least half a conscience. Most of them are trying to make as many lives as better as possible.

But good intentions do not erase bad results (as is so commonly thought). A lot of doctors are really behind in the research on most chronic pain conditions. A lot of doctors believe pretty backwards things about chronic pain patients (I'll give you two words that sum it all up: faking it). A lot of doctors are too busy managing other things to really connect the dots properly. A lot of doctors drop the ball in referring a patient to someone who can take care of them properly if they know that they cannot (and simply offering any ol' referral to get them out of your hair does not count). A lot of doctors fail to follow through, period.

And their patients suffer for it. Understandable or not.

The medical world is a busy, busy world. There's a lot going on at any one time and no one person can carry the entire burden. Sometimes, mistakes are made, because the people doing the work are human.

But sometimes, it doesn't matter why. Because someone is suffering as a result.

And someone had damn well better pick up that ball and set it rolling again, history be damned.

To patients who don't know what to do, where to go, who to see, because nothing seems to go right: Keep trying. Keep faith. It's not all in your head. You aren't imagining it. If one professional fails to diagnose or treat your condition to a point where you get better, then find another. Because that professional is not doing hir job.

And you deserve one who does.

It's exhausting sometimes. But keep moving forward.