As a mom to 4 very active boys I never thought at 33 years old I would have to live my daily life dealing with severe chronic pain, but here I am.

I know some one you know what it feels like. I know that many people live with some type of chronic pain as well. And I’m also sure that many of those same people have asked the question “why me?” as much as I have. I’m too young, too active, have too many plans… My body has plans of its own and they aren’t conducive to my lifestyle.

My back has cracked discs, severe degenerative disc disease, scoliosis (which was news to me), disc issues in my neck as well and an old injury in my right shoulder. My hips are misaligned in a bad way posterior to anterior and left to right. My right knee is going bum and my ankles…well my ankles are just a story of their own. This scratches the surface of the pain I live with everyday. On top of this, migraines from it all go from 0 to puking in minutes.

Now, I don’t do doctors, except for initial diagnosis/exam and I also don’t take medicines, not even Tylenol. This doesn’t help anything but I would rather let my body help itself. I have been told I need back surgery, and ankle surgery and that I have severe osteoarthritis.

But why does all of this matter? Because I am actually to a point that it is affecting my daily life. It hurts to move. Some days, getting out of bed is hard. I don’t want my kids to think I’d rather lay down than spend time with them.

As a mother, and especially in my case where my husband works out of town/state/country all of the time and I homeschool my children, it is almost impossible to take big measures in correcting any of it because that means downtime, time unable to properly take care of my children.

Chronic pain is something I don’t talk about often because I don’t like to sound like I am complaining. I live a beautiful life and get to take care of my amazing boys.

This year is about being more transparent and showing real real-life. So here I am, in pain, everyday pushing through it.

I am not lazy. I am suffering, silently. And if you are too, you’re not alone.

xoxo Raisin’ Hell and Gentlemen
Painful Mama