Compassion From Strangers all over the World - There are still some incredible folks out there...

Sometimes life's battles seem too impossible and too difficult to bear another day. All of us, sick or well, have our own "demons", and daily struggles, and even when some may think they are quite small, when YOU are in the middle of them, they can seem totally monumental. When Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain, daily, grinding, fierce, wake up and go to bed with suffering or wondering when the next time you suffer WILL be. It is just fathomable it WILL happen again, thus the word "chronic" comes into play. Well, this past three, now going on 4 weeks for me has been all of that and more. I feel I have "lost" so many pieces of me right now, that I don't even recognize them. What makes that worse, is that I can't truly express it to anyone, because first of all, I do not want to have my closest spouse and family horrendously worried over my mental health, because my physical health concerns them enough. The pain, internal pain pump and all of the extra medicines, walking, or more like barely dragging myself around my drive way every morning, watering my plants, and mostly, NOT! NOT writing, not able to even FIND A word TO WRITE... like my voice is gone... that frightens me. Being so ill, you do not even feel like taking a shower, hell even getting off the sofa for a glass of tea is like going on a 3 day trip, and it just seems endless. I have expressed this episode, these flares, whatever THIS is now to my doctors, my Mom, my husband, my kids, and just about anyone else on FB or out in the world that will listen. And I am NOT a whiner for the most part. I may feel inside like a total loser, a failure, and I may internally fight those forces of evil that are certainly trying to get their best out of me, but usually I CAN do this almost BY MYSELF. Yet, not this time. This is different. This is pain I cannot even describe. This is fatigue, that has made my past episodes feel like child's play. I have "several" physical issues that have become the "perfect physical sickness storm" for me. Which after a very long almost an hour visit with my PCP last Friday, kind of make sense. Yet, how much longer can a person endure? How much more must I take? How much more CAN I take??? You are not usually one to hear me say "I am almost ready to give up".. throw in the towel, stop the fight... I am NOT the kind to NOT fight a battle that I KNOW that NEEDS to be fought! I am one to stand up and face the enemy, and take it on, full force... even if I am left drug out, sore, and tired, I LIKE to say I WON! That is when it comes to chronic illness... Lupus, RA, migraines, chronic joint pain, muscles that constantly hurt, the tired that is beyond tired... I am a battler of it all... and I have battled well in the past.
Yet this time is different. This one is more difficult, it is not the "usual" battle. This is not the usual “nightmarish helluva flare” that we anguish with for a few days, cursing it’s very name “The Wolf”, along with other chronic illnesses and pain… that finally slink away into the darkness in which they so suddenly sneaked upon us. This continues to be the ONE that feels as if it is here to stay, forever and a day.
Alas, someone (and honesty there are several) in my life that are praying for me, concerned and worried about me, and especially worried that the words “give up” keep cropping up in my conversations. As I said above, I feel as if anything that my life is worth right now has been all jerked out from under me, leaving an empty shell of what my existence used to be.
So, about a week ago my husband (not known at the time by me) so extremely worried about all of my states, mental, physical and emotional was trying to come up with some way that he could possibly bring me some renewal of faith, of hope, for he sees I have definitely lost that part of me, as never before. So, he knows about another web site, that is sort of like a Facebook type of site. It is and it is not a “social media” kind of place. I had heard the name several times and thought it was kind of a “techie” type of blog and group thing, more for the the do design and development of web sites and so forth.
Yet, he knew about it quite a bit, and went to research some way he could lift me up and let me know that many, many care, even though I may not even know it. I have that often on Facebook. We CARE about one another! We are concerned and worried when one of our flock is not well , whether it is physical, mental, emotional, having a tough time with life etc.
But Jim wrote a short “post” on Reddit, under a “group” of chronic pain board people, telling the a bit about my current severe flare, about how badly it has gotten me down, and since he wanted to show me that MANY care when I do not even know it, he asked them, anyone, if they would like to, please send a quick or long “message” to me. Whether they also had chronic pain, or knew of someone.. or were someone that just wanted to do a random act of kindness to someone who really needed a huge boost right now, up this STEEP mountain that is really keeping me at the bottom this time. He “expected” nothing, and he GOT EVERYTHING! People, at least 100 of them so far or more (in about 7 days or so) began to send in messages to “me”. Someone they knew little about, never “met” me, just knew I had a husband that was desperate to find something he could do to at least lift my spirits a little, or give me a slight sliver of a ray of hope and faith again. Thus he took the emails he got, put them in “talking bubble balloons” like you see in cartoons, and people also sent different pictures, or many of them did, and he is posting them on the foam backers boards in different places, with these pictures, their names if they sent them, and they are some short, but many LONG telling me how I should NEVER give up, that I had a husband that loved me more than life itself, but the main thing is that they care, and they care from all over the world! From Canada to the UK, all over the US, and all over the world, these messages continue to come in, from total strangers, that wanted to do something “nice”… a random act of kindness to help someone such as me. So, he presented me with 3 of these boards night before last. I was at the end of my rope and even though he did not have all of them together yet, he knew it was time to share his “project” of love.
Well, I cannot even begin to say in words how that has made me feel. Just the idea he came up with is just incredible! What a wonderful gesture of love, and of unselfish love, totally because he cares so deeply, that he went to all of this to show me OTHERS, even strangers truly care!!!! 
I am still just in pure amazement, for one, he went through all of this, so he coiuld prove to me others do care.! What it did was rebuild my “faith” in fellow man. It just seems that lately every time you hear the news, whether right here at home, or far away, something has gone terribly awry. From Mother Nature showing us her “true wrath” for the way we have neglected, abused, and totally ruined all of “Her”… the land, the waters and the air. We have made a horrid mess of Earth. People may try and bury their heads in the sand, and say “we” did NOT do it, and there is NO SUCH THING as greenhouse gases, the drastic changes in weather patterns, and all of these surreal incidents, from flooding to severe drought, from snow and ice, to extreme heat and humidity, from wild fires going insanely out of control, and killing as many as 19 of our great fellow humanitarians. Then just think of all of the other “human” error and horror around the globe. Go from the tornados and hurricanes,  to the greatest fall of humans caring about one another ever. Men rising up against their own, in every nation and on every continent. How many countries are at civil war now? How many “war” and battles are we, along with other nations are going on right at this moment? Just about every Middle Eastern Country is at war within themselves or at was with many of us.Greed is everywhere. From our own government, health insurance companies, doctors, medical facilities, and all around the Earth, greed, selfishness, and taking advantage of just ruining someone, breaking the bank, causing job losses, taking billions of dollars out of the hands of those who need it them most, greed, gluttony, selfishness, non-compassion, and down right evil exists everywhere you turn. Children, killing other kids, and how do those guns get in their hands in the first place? Where are parents? How can a parent let a baby die in a hot car? How can men take women for no reason, and keep them as prisoners for years right in their own neighborhoods? How can many leaders of nations do “genocide” on their own people? Why is it we must FIGHT over everything and we NEVER are able to make one simple decision? When it comes to the “welfare and health” of the people of this nation and others, they would rather allow someone to “die” on the hospital steps than to life their own fellow man a hand up. Money is totally been the ruination of this great nation. Greed has ran so rampant that even democracy is not here, just a mere shadow of what it used to be.
So, when I see everyday folks, all over the world, to a total stranger, sitting in a very small town in Texas hurting so badly she is more than ready to call it “strike 3”, give up, get on the sofa, under the bed, or wherever with the thoughts that I truly am given a “hand up” in how I feel about my fellow man again.
I am so totally blessed first of all to have a spouse who truly takes care of me. He even must deal with his own chronic pain issues due to a very bad lower back problem that he was probably born with. After years of strain on it, that vertebra is a total wreck. So, we must “help” each other when we can, because neither of us are in all that great of shape physically. Yet, he did something so kind, so totally a random act of kindness, that I am totally speechless at the gesture. I know he is making picture of the boards as he puts them together. So when all of the them are complete I will post pics of them. I will tell you people from the UK, from Alberta Canada, From all different states, places, walks of life, sent some one liners, but most entire letters, emails of how much they care about me, how strong I am and can still be, and that they are thinking, praying and cheering for me every step of the battle.
This is a wonderful story, and a wonderful act of kindness, that I feel should be “paid forward” in a way. Others, many others, including two families very close to my heart here in my home town, I found out just yesterday are dealing with some horrible situations, also physically. One of them went to school with me, and was in my graduating class, had cancer 30 years ago. Now, after all those years, they have found out it is back, and sound like with a vengeance. She is only 51 years “young”!!!! Then I found out that another family I have known all my life is suffering a horrible time with the Mom going completely blind due to macular degeneration, and she is not even able to drive anymore. Then her daughter, who I spoke with yesterday, is about 3 years YOUNGER than myself, and she has Parkinson’s!!! Here she is in her 40’s with Parkinson’s! That seems unreal. Plus for some reason I was not aware, she also lost her husband just last year to a full blown PE, Pulmonary Embolism! She was driving with him down the road and he suddenly became ill, and before she got him to the emergency room, he had passed away! So, we can just turn a tad to the “North, South, East or West and see things happening that are definitely worse than our things. Yet, we never can negate what we are going through. Because yes, other things may “seem” worse, yet when you or a loved one, friend so forth are suffering, ill, with Lupus or with any type of illness, pain, etc, then it is bad. So, we should always have compassion for others, but remember to have compassion for your own self also. Anyway, there is also another “bright” spot in this for myself. I did in a small way “get my writing voice” back. What my husband did so unselfishly to help me, and then what others did that is so profoundly wondrous, helped me to be able to write this. So, I may not seem to be able to grasp what I want to write for the book right now, but I have a sense of renewed hope and faith, that once we find out WHY the PAIN is so BAD, why I am suddenly so over wrought with what seems like the largest “flare” of symptoms ever, and get down to “fixing” things we can, or allowing the things that need to heal themselves do so, that my voice is still here. It has just taken a sabbatical, while I get well.

I also want to say to ALL of my FACE BOOK FRIENDS, EACH OF YOU, also MAKE A DIFFERENCE EVERY DAY IN MY LIFE!!! I pray I can do half of what many of you do to help me and feel those of you out there that truly care. We are a family, and always will be. So, I want to thank you also.

I still feel I have not found WORDS ENOUGH to express how touched I am with all of this. I just hope he, along with all of those wonderful and compassionate strangers shall remember they have someone who thinks the world of them in a very small town in Texas.

Rhia