Hurt Feelings

Fear Itself

I’m scared to imagine aging in chronic pain.

Late at night, after watching Stephen Colbert, I lie in bed trying to fall asleep while my mind drifts to terrifying thoughts.

Despite trying to fend them off by mentally singing the chorus to “Let It Go,” the hit song from Frozen, disturbing notions float through my brain. The worst isn’t the Big D, though. It is the reverse: worry about living into old age with my severe chronic pain — mostly from degenerative osteoarthritis due to a rare genetic disease.

What, I ask myself, will life be like the next day, the day after, and so on throughout the years as my body continues to decay? There, in the dark, my fear of future pain is overwhelming.

Unfortunately, pain comes for most of us oldsters. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH):

— An estimated 65 percent of U.S. adults over the age of 65 report suffering from pain and up to 30 percent of older adults report suffering from chronic pain.

— 48 percent of older adults suffer from arthritis.

— 55 percent of older adults in long-term-care facilities say chronic pain impacts their daily function.