OUR HALLOWEEN MASKS

Masks. 

Halloween.

Chronic Pain.

The perfect trifecta.

It's so true that we disguise ourselves. Whether we have a chronic illness or not we usually never tell the truth when someone asks how we are. I mean, who really answers the question when someone asks how you are? It's really bad when you have chronic pain.

"How are you doing today?"

Not good.

All I want to do is sleep.

I'm in huge, big time, pain.

My hands hurt.

My head hurts.

My back hurts.

I'm not sleeping real well.

My whole body hurts.

Every bone in my body hurts.

I ache.

I'm tired.

I feel horrible.

I can't seem to get out of bed.

I can't concentrate real well today.

What did you say?

After a while no one wants to hear it anymore.

Let me clue you in on a little fact.

After a while we don't want to say it anymore either.

So we say:

I'm okay.

Or we fake a smile.

I'm just a little tired.

Or we fake a smile.

It could be worse.

Or we fake a smile.

Today's not a real good day.

Or we fake a smile.

Or we burst into tears.

And we still try to fake a smile.

Or better yet....we just don't say anything.

We mask it.

Anyway, we disguise how we feel. We disguise the pain that we feel. We disguise the guilt that we feel. We disguise the depression. We disguise the lack of sleep. We disguise the embarrassment over feeling sick yet again. We disguise the forgetfulness. We disguise everything.

It's funny how Halloween brings to mind the nature of chronic illness because we wear masks almost daily. 

We have to stop and take off the masks.

Because.

We don't want to be a mask.

A mask with a beating heart.