Peace Body Pain Body - by Jarad Bruinstroop

… At the hospital, they call chronic pain ‘persistent pain’. ‘Persistent’ has a more positive connotation, but it also suggests the pain has agency. The pain does not persist. I persist.

The head of the spinal clinic tells me there’s no point in more physiotherapy, since I reported no benefit from it. I ask him what he would do if he were me. He says, I would try to learn to live with the pain. We are talking on the phone, so I can’t see his face. And he can’t see the expression on mine …