Imagine this.
You suddenly wake up as a cruel pain shrieks through your body. You squint at the clock as at it blares back at you. 3:33 a.m.? You think to yourself. It's pitch black all around you -- completely silent. But, once again, you will not sleep. Your memory fails to recall a night of slumber that lasted longer than two hours at a time. There's nothing you wouldn't do to sleep through the pain, but the pain is exactly what's keeping you awake.
You brace yourself.
You cry out loud after finally gaining the courage to pull yourself up from your laying position. The invisible aches rock your entire body. You imagine how comforting a warm shower used to feel during stressful times. But now, water hits your skin like pin needles. Almost all pleasurable sensations now cause you agony. Your life has been stolen, hijacked by a nasty disease.
You wish so desperately for somebody to just understand, but they've heard that cry a million times before, and that fact alone makes your situation so much worse. Your family has practically memorized the different tunes of your cry after the aches hit your vulnerable body. They've tried helping you like others have before. You tell them how desperately you just wish you could get out of bed. You want to spend the day with them, to run wild and to be free. But it's useless, right? Because it seems like nothing will take your pain away.
Today, I welcome you to the invisible tragedy of chronic pain. The tragedy is associated with half of U.S. suicides. It cannot be cured, and therefore, has caused many to lose their jobs, independence, money and even sometimes their ability to drive. In the most horrendous cases, some even lose their will to live. What's especially difficult for those who suffer from chronic pain is that others around them cannot see the symptoms.
"I would say there's been hundreds of days where I woke up, and the pain was so bad that I just wished I could die."
That's how Lisa Carlson described hundreds of her days during the last seven years of her life.
I sat down with Lisa about a month ago. This was one of the first occasions we had spoken, and here we were, sitting on a couch with a microphone in between us as she told me about the unjust hand the universe dealt her. It didn't take long for me to see Lisa for the woman truly she is. She's a warrior who uses positivity as her shield. This shield of positivity I speak of has protected Lisa from ending her own life, like many have before her. Despite suffering through seven years in a seemingly never-ending war against chronic pain, Lisa has fought through it. The night I interviewed her, she was even planning on a night of dancing due to a recent miracle, something she had once imagined she'd never do again.
Up until recently, life has been incredibly unfair to Lisa Carlson. She has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, Graves' disease and Dercum's disease, all of which contribute to her chronic pain. Fibromyalgia, she explained, has been the most debilitating.
Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by pain receptors that are always amplified. The smallest touch to the skin can cause excruciating pain because the brain misinterprets the pain signal. Not enough is known about this disorder, but symptoms have been recorded as appearing after a traumatizing event, such as surgery. That was also the case for Lisa.
During an operation seven years ago to get her appendix removed, doctors discovered that a large portion of Lisa's intestines had become neurotic, or "dead tissue," due to an unknown infection. This forced the medical staff to remove 10 inches of her intestines. The operation brought on her fibromyalgia and Lisa has not been the same since.
"Fibromyalgia stole five years of my life away."
Before her chronic pain, Lisa was a full-time employee, an engaging mother to two children and a nursing student. She's committed time to working with autistic children, children with epilepsy and has done respite care in her own home.
"I really just believe it's my calling to be helping people. That's when I'm happiest."
After the surgery, fibromyalgia struck. She was hospitalized for 10 days after the surgery because of the unusual pain she faced. Since the surgery, the absolutely debilitating pain has forced Lisa to quit school and leave her job. A single mother, Lisa had to support her children, medical bills and herself on just Social Security and disability. To make matters worse, the 27 medications and 40 pills she's had to take each day gave her brain fog so bad that she could no longer drive for herself or her children.
"I was so terrified to drive that I stopped driving for five years. I felt like a burden to every family member and every friend."
Her body hurt too much to exercise, escalating her weight in recent years to the highest it's ever been, making her feel all the more depressed.
"The doctors just simply told me to exercise but the max I could even walk was about two blocks."
If you're like me, you feel that Lisa's story is a nightmare, or maybe a heartbreaking movie where life proves itself unfair. Her catastrophic diagnosis is one that many may fear, but most could never imagine. However, the most extraordinary part of Lisa Carlson's story has not even been illustrated yet. It's the actions she took that make her a personal heroine of mine, and an admirable woman to all who will read her story.
Lisa has done everything possible to treat her symptoms. For five years straight, Lisa tried treatment after treatment to relieve her pain with no prevail. To deal with the depression that naturally forms after an illness like chronic pain, she sought weekly therapy. For her spiritual self, she turned to meditation and prayer, with her faith in God giving her tremendous hope. Lisa did not give up once. Whenever a treatment failed, she was lining up for the next one.
Desperate measures hit when Lisa made the decision to move to Colorado after discovering that higher altitudes relieve pressure on the skin, and therefore, some of the pain. With lower pressures and medical marijuana, Lisa was able to do water exercises, allowing her to drop the 68 pounds that she had gained after her diagnosis. However, the absence of her kids was too much for this loving mother. She made the hard decision to leave these circumstances and move back to Minnesota. The medical gain did not outweigh being with her children.
This is the point where, you can imagine, many would lose all hope.
That's when a miracle finally landed upon Lisa's life. After her arrival back to her home state, she began searching for somebody who could perform acupuncture on her. She landed in the hands of a local chiropractor who agreed to not only perform acupuncture, but to also try a new technique to relieve her pain. This new technique consisted of the lifting the top vertebrae of Lisa's neck and pushing in with his fingers for up to 10 minutes.
"I just felt my pain start to dissipate. And I just immediately started bawling tears of relief. I couldn't believe that whatever he just did just worked."
There are only two doctors in the state of Minnesota who are certified for this procedure, and she happened to land in the hands of one of them. Only half a mile away from her current residence, she's able to walk there and get regular treatments. Lisa says her pain has now improved by 90 percent and she believes she might even be able to start working part-time. That night, Lisa was going out dancing with some friends. Through tear-filled eye, she explained to me, "I finally feel like myself for the first time. If we would have had this conversation before, I'd be in my pajamas, laying in my bed; I would have cried through the whole thing, and I would have told you that my biggest fear was that I'm not going to be able to pick up my grand babies. And now I'm not afraid of that anymore."
My life was changed after meeting with Lisa Carlson that day. She taught me the importance of keeping hope burning alive once life tears you down. She showed me the importance of laughing and having fun despite the circumstances in which you are given. And, she taught me how important love is, to love and to give love.
The treatment that Lisa received is called NRTC, or Neurological Relief Centers Technique. For more information, visit http://www.nrc.md/index.php
