In Bed
The worst part about pain is the inability for others to understand exactly how you are feeling. After visiting several doctors due to a sharp pain in my ankle, I was concerned that the problem would never get fixed. Since I had such a hard time trying to explain and rate my pain to the doctors, I feared that they would never diagnose my problem. Many times, when an individual is in pain, either physical or emotional, they search for affirmation from others. It is at this point in your life when you need your closest friends and family to be there for you the most. If no one understands your pain or makes an attempt to understand it, the pain worsens. Joan Didion discusses this in her essay “In Bed”. Suffering from migraines since a very young age, Didion has a good understanding of what it feels like to be around others who cant understand her pain. She states, “…Perhaps nothing so tends to prolong an attack as the accusing eye of someone who has never had a headache.” If an individual hasn’t experienced what she is going through, it is impossible for them to understand what she is going through.
Even after having microscopic surgery on my ankle and going through six weeks of recovery, I sometimes still experience pain that I had prior to the operation. It is hard to complain about this pain to my family and friends because the doctor claimed the surgery was successful. Similar to Didion, I have learned to accept the pain. Luckily the duration of the pain is particularly short, and only comes after an extensive amount of physical activity. The pain has become a part of my life, and coping with it becomes easier every day.