Pain

Pain is "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage."[1]

Pain is subjective, but it is also the fifth vital sign, something that is hammered into us in Nursing school.

Pain, if managed with a comprehensive treatment plan can often be alleviated. But when it can't, we learn to live with it.

Pain from my feet, from plantar facitis, pain in my other foot from goodness knows what, back pain from lifting Arianna, head pain from reading too long without my glasses, emotional pain from heartbreak, loss, and disappointment. Pain from child birth, pain from running my first 13.1 miles, pain because I couldn't finish my last 13.1 miles.

Pain because I can't explain to my four year old why her sister doesn't talk, pain because I can't understand what her sister wants or where she hurts. Pain because I don't know how to help Arianna's pain that she can't express.

Pain is subjective.

Pain is often hard to manage in Cancer patients. My pain is subjective, and pales in comparison to what my grandfather may have to endure as he battles his Cancer. Pales in comparison to the "unpleasant sensation" that occurs when a child goes into status epilepticus.

My pain can wait... cures for Angelman Syndrome, Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Cancer CAN NOT. On September 18 I run to raise money for AS research. Research that is currently in process and being presented at the biennial AS Conference in Salt Lake City Utah. We are on the brink of finding something so amazing that we can't wait for the money, we need it NOW. It is not only going to help AS but so many other cognitive conditions.

With the recent diagnosis of my grandfather's cancer, I run with a heavier heart. Too many in my family have been taken from us by this great Pain.

However I also run with a spirit that is unlike any other. I refuse to negate the positive life that I have chosen to guide this adventure. I refuse to let the pain negate the love of life that our family has always had.

So with this post, I ask that you spread the word of my run, join me on a run, raise money for my run, and cheer me on when I run. I run in pain, not for pain. I'll run through pain, for pain is subjective. I will cross the finish line, even if I am the last one... my pain will cease with time, my injuries will heal.