A quiet corner for chronic pain
Keeping you company in the moments you feel betrayed by your body or trapped in your mind
A healthcare advocacy project inspired by chronic pain patient & friend, Luigi Mangione
“How do you live in pain…every day?” Luigi asked me, stunned
Standing around the kitchen counter, I was telling him about my ~20 years as a chronic illness patient. So many doctors, ER visits, tests, and medications — I'm sorry, I know, it sounds kinda bleak.
As we bonded over our shared experience of living in chronic pain, we found in each other a friend who didn’t need words to understand (and who appreciated the healing power of a cotton candy sunset).
Because, fortunately or unfortunately, people out there may not have personal experience with the moments of distress that often accompany living with chronic pain or illness. But their loved one might.
In a way, what I’m writing about here are things that I either said (or wish I had said) during those in-between times of struggle and stillness. So, I dedicate this healthcare and patient advocacy project to friends I already know, like Lulu, and to the people I have yet to meet and call friends, including our loved ones and caregivers. I hope that this project may refuel empathy and understanding.
Your (new friend), Maggie
Journal
Meet Maggie
Hey. Hi. My loved ones call me Maggie. Or Mags. You pick.
I’ve lived with chronic pain for ~20 years, white-knuckling it through school classes, work days, and varying degrees of a social life. Living with chronic pain or illness isn’t like healing a broken leg or being sick with the flu. When friends or coworkers ask if you’re “feeling better yet,” it can be difficult to explain that you’re not. And that you may ever be “healed.”
These are things I wish I could talk about with you, as a friend, in the quiet corner of a coffee shop. Trading war stories of fighting a broken health system that’s failing not just us as patients, but also our caregivers and health providers. Coincidentally, I work as a health writer, often ghostwriting for physicians, and so sharing the HCP perspective is something I am passionate about (I love Docfluencer’s work for amplifying the battle scars we patients don’t usually get to see).
Thank you for your support and patience while I get this project going.
Until we can grab a latte,
Your friend, Maggie