PAIN

PAIN Millions of people in the United States are disabled (or would be without medication) because of chronic pain disorders—many sufferers not even knowing the origin of their condition. Blood tests and imaging don’t reveal the cause. As a couple affected by chronic pain (my wife Megan has fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, and thoracic outlet syndromes), we know that most treatments—medical and holistic—fail. We find ourselves coping (a loaded word) through photography and poetry. The photographs are layered images or multiple layered images of Megan with details from images of headstones, memorials and sculptures located at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati, Ohio or other found objects. The images are layered together to make visible the invisible internal struggles that Megan and people with chronic pain suffer daily. Megan writes poems to accompany each photograph. For a patient’s loved ones, “coping” is a form of understanding as well as dealing with difficult behaviors/thought patterns/emotions/moods of the patient. The ugliness and beauty in Pain represents a visual cue that patients lack. The world can’t see this kind of suffering the way it sees the cast healing a broken limb. For patients, “manage” is the most important synonym for “cope”; both of the words require a great deal of energy. Patients suffer bouts of exhaustion throughout the day regardless of their sleeping patterns at night. We hope that our story brings empathy to those who’ve had none and a sense of justification to those who suffer. Art and Writing do what Time does not. J. Michael Skaggs (Photographer) Megan D. Henson (Poet and Subject)