I wish very strongly to convey to immediate family members and friends
of ARD sufferers that they simply and truely need your acceptance and
understanding of their illness and plight. They have such a lonely and
unsupported battle to fight!!
My wife recently saw an e-mail from a young lady who is at her wits end
to make her mother understand that her pain is real (and debilitating).
Now please understand that I am a layman. I'm not a physchiatrist nor
do I profess to be; but I know that some people pretend nothing is wrong
because they have a hard time accepting the fact that someone they love
is hurting and they are powerless to do anything about it. Please,
Please people: We know you can't make it better but try to be
understanding; validate their pain(as it is REAL) and give them LOVE and
Compassion. That's probably all you can do to the sufferer, it is
truely priceless.
My dear wife is what her primary surgeondescribes as a "very severe
case". I've seen her drop to her knees and become totally incapacitated
by painwith this condition which so many say does not cause pain. I
watched her last surgery as even the specialists were so vitally
concerned as to hit every area of pain; I then was subjected with true
reality of her adhesiond as it was a war zone in her body. The Drs
described it as looking at a gun shot victom there was so much damage.