Mrs. Ram's Jams

It’s that time of year again.

Back to school supplies have been replaced with Halloween decorations in Target’s seasonal aisles. Basic girls in their twenties, pretending they’re professional photographers, are staging pumpkin spice lattes on tables, snapping pictures of their overpriced coffees, swiping right until landing on the perfect filter, and then posting their faux artwork on their Instastories. Football fans are gorging themselves on a smorgasbord of touchdowns, tailgates, and tallboys, an all-American weekend buffet.

But it’s also the time of year for Mrs.Ram’s Jam to write a pain awareness post because September is Pain Awareness Month.

Because while the shelf stocker at Target was swapping out the display of Ticonderoga #2 pencils for skeleton wreaths, he was suffering from a migraine.

Because even though sorority girl Sally’s posts seem overbearing, she was crippled with a fibromyalgia flare all week and is celebrating its end with an expensive coffee and Instagram.

Because while the biggest Saint’s fan in New Orleans hollers “Who Dat”  in the Superdome on Sunday at noon, he’s masking the pain of the pinched nerve in his lower back that’s causing him to consider going on disability.

Because one in three Americans suffer from pain.

Because pain sufferers suck it up and trudge on when they can and deserve to be heard.

Because pain sufferers deserve to be heard when it gets to be too much. 

And because, as always, pain only remains invisible if isn’t discussed.

For more information about Pain Awareness Month, visit the American Chronic Pain Association’s website.

For more information about pain, visit the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s website.

Here are links to other posts about pain and chronic illness by Mrs. Ram’s Jams:

Chronic Pain Awareness

A Poem: Invisible Illness Idioms

My New Normal: Meniere’s Disease

Is That My Invisible Illness, Am I Dying, or Is It Something Less Drastic Than Death but Still Needs To Be Treated?

Chronic Illness: Playing Phone Tag with Doctors’ Offices

Fibromyalgia Flare Friday