I sit in my place—the patient’s chair—prepared to be a partner in my care. I’ve brought an expanding bible of medical tests and consultant notes, a list of medications and interventions, including what has worked and what hasn’t, and a diary of symptoms I now describe with familiarity. Muscles spasm in my core when I… Continue Reading ‘Partners In My Care’, by anonymous
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body hangs off me like a scab, torture-punished brain a scared little animal peering out of skull, rats gnaw at the base of psyche, lick rusty razor blade, electric flame slice belly, fiery metal spears dangle from gut, The great beast paws idly at my entrails, sparking shark teeth chew slowly up leg, thrust scorching… Continue Reading ‘CENTRAL PAIN SYNDROME: NAMING THE BEAST’, by Doug Sharp
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Pain permeates her dreams, Seeps into this anaemic morning. Sucking breath to unhinge each joint stuck fast through the cramp of night. The bathroom is an agony away, Tender feet must scrape each step while Wincing fingers trace the rails along her jagged journey. Tap turners levered by cankered wrists bring the gush and plunge… Continue Reading ‘Footsteps’, by Jacqueline Woods
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I drew this while lying down in bed during a ME/CFS relapse and Fibromyalgia flare-up that has seen me housebound and sometimes bedridden. It describes the location of some of the pain in my body and how sore it feels. The image also embodies my sense of feeling trapped as a result of my disability,… Continue Reading ‘Wings’, by Paula Knight
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Please do not judge me,it wasn’t my choice This illness descended, that’s what hurts the most I have worked all my life, brought up three healthy boys It has never been easy, what with clothing and toys I can cope with fatigue, as most mothers can But i took on too much, then the trouble… Continue Reading ‘The Pain Of Acceptance’, by Ian Conrad Cross
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When the pain goes I half suppose my flesh marked, transformed. A growth of lichen, say, with its warm turmeric tint; a layer of cool, silvery fish-scales; traces of the glacial burn of chain-mail melting into skin. Best of all a delicate, graceful articulation of relief on the site of its worst excesses: once the… Continue Reading ‘Metamorphosis’, by Marion Michell
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We pay the cable from the reel in staggers, jerk the squiggly line between the bushes, wake the minor aches, the none too vicious graters in the knee that love to grab us. Nothing lightweight in the gear for this one: the Black and Decker like a struggling toddler; the squeaky derricks of our legs… Continue Reading ‘The Grinder’, by Alan Horne
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She asks if it’s raining outside while she takes my blood pressure. I ask if I should take my shoes off before I stand on the scales. Sharp scratch, she says before she slides in the needle. Four vials of blood, all with sticky labels. I take the foil plate into the cubicle, slip on… Continue Reading ‘She asks if it’s raining outside’, by Jane Hartshorn
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Worst days pain ricochets like shooting stars with pinball crushes. Oh the love! Releases fiery goo when ramming rib, tooth, bone. Skull reels alone; body razed by frequent flyer flares, flags pushed here there, declaring consternation zones. Each smart begets another, emulates, and brass bands march in new-laid grooves, playing their loudest, most discordant tunes.… Continue Reading ‘Shooting stars’, by Marion Michell
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you sit in my throat like a stone in shoe eyes dry as bone. bones hurt. why cry? these days that feel different but all so same. little belly wrenches all the time as though to be freed from something tonsils i should rip them from my neck. daft neck neck forever stiff but why… Continue Reading ‘NIGHT SWEATS’, by Blair James
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