‘There are enough good days, I can still enjoy life’
“I haven’t worked since 2008, and I’m now permanently disabled. I’ve had 15 car accidents since I started driving as a teenager. The one that messed up my neck happened in Louisiana in 2001. I thought I was going to die, it hurt so bad.
“I’ve had two surgeries on my back, and I’ve been getting injections for 12 years. They put a numbing agent on the nerve to calm it down, and they put cortisone in there for the inflammation. It’s to the point where those aren’t lasting very long.
“A year ago in December, while trying to grab one of my little cats from the attic out in the garage, I fell 8 feet from a ladder onto the concrete floor. I broke my foot, messed up my elbow, and messed up my back really good.
“I hurt so bad in the mornings now, it takes hours for me to be able to sit and relax for a little bit, and then walk it out and stretch it out. A lot of times, with the pain medication, I’m sleepy and drowsy. All the chronic pain has caused fibromyalgia. So there are days where it alone will just creep in, and I’m done, where I can’t function mentally or physically.
“With a chronic condition like this, it’s not just the pain you deal with. Eventually, it starts to mess with your organs. I’ve been having kidney problems, and I need to go see a kidney specialist.
“As life goes on, I’m kind of deteriorating a little bit at a time. I used to get real mad about it all. Now I just accept it. I’m functioning. There are enough good days that I can still enjoy life. When I’m having a good day, I just see how long it lasts and accept what comes next. Otherwise, it’s like giving up and admitting defeat.
“It’s challenging, but I try to not let it consume me. You’ve got to break out of that shell and step back into the world, and try to push that pain back. If not, how are you going to experience and enjoy life?”
— Stella Furst
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