The world used to be in color. Vibrant, rich hues painted every day — the cerulean sky, the emerald leaves, the fiery sunsets I’d chase with a camera in hand. Now, it’s mostly gray, washed out by a relentless, invisible fire. They call it CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, but I call it the thief. It stole my life, my independence, and a piece of my soul I may never get back.
It started after a minor surgery. I brushed it off, chalked it up to normal post-op pain. Then the pain sharpened, twisting into something unrecognizable. It wasn’t just a hurt; it was a screaming inferno that refused to be extinguished. My skin became a live wire — every touch, every breeze, a jolt of agony. My hand, the one that used to deftly wield tools and sketch dreams, swelled and changed color — a monstrous parody of what it once was.
The doctors tried, but the glazed-over eyes, the hushed tones of “rare” and “complex” — they spoke volumes. It felt like I was speaking a foreign language, trying to describe a sunrise to someone who had only ever known perpetual night. How do you explain that your own body has turned against you — that the very nerves designed to protect you are now your torturers?
The hardest part, harder even than the torment itself, is the isolation. Friends, once so close, drifted away. Their initial sympathy gave way to awkward silences, then eventually, nothing at all. “You don’t look sick,” they’d say — a phrase that felt like a punch to the gut. How could I make them see the lightning bolts shooting through my veins, the icy grip that sometimes seizes my limbs, the constant tremor that makes holding a cup a Herculean task? I stopped trying to explain. It was easier to just retreat, to curl up in my own private hell where at least I didn’t have to witness their discomfort or their pity.
I used to be proud. Independent. Self-sufficient. The one everyone came to for help. Now, I’m the one who needs help to open a jar, to button a shirt, sometimes even to just stand. The humiliation is a constant companion, a burning shame that rivals the pain. Asking for help feels like tearing off a piece of my dignity, exposing a raw wound. Begging — even subtly — for understanding or patience is a soul-crushing exercise. I see the flicker of impatience in their eyes, the subtle shift in their posture, and I know they don’t get it. They can’t.
Sleep is a fleeting whisper, a brief reprieve before the flames rekindle. The nights are long and lonely, filled with the echo of my own cries and the terrifying realization that this might be my forever. There are moments — dark moments — when the sheer weight of it all threatens to crush me entirely. The relentless pain, the crushing loneliness, the constant battle to simply exist.
And sometimes, more than anything, I just want to close my eyes and dissolve into the quiet abyss.
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