In high school my appendix burst, but because my parents were convinced it was “just gas” they waited a few days to take me to a walk in clinic, where the doctor made it clear I should be in the ER. After a month long hospital stay and lots of fun complications including fucking dying, my shredded, poisoned guts were sown back together and I was sent on my way. The complications didn't end after I left the hospital though, to this day any kind of activity involving bending or digesting food causes crippling pain. I have to be very, very careful about when and what I eat (mostly veggies and fruit, I've had to basically drop meat) otherwise my digestive tract seizes right the fuck up for days and amps the pain levels way past 11. I can't really explain the pain, though. It's like fire and groinkicking at the same time, like the person kicking you in the groin has feet made of fire and also when you get kicked your ovaries go into your stomach and light your stomach on fire.

For a long time, my folks didn't realize the extent of my problem and so they gave me loads of shit for it. This particularly burned me as my dad had been in a bad car wreck before I was born, which lead to a really long hospital stay due to his crushed spine. He experiences chronic pain as well, and I think that made me feel uselessfor having the same problems due to a stupid burst appendix, and I tend to keep these things to myself. So we had issues for a long while, because of that and because I kind of resented them for waiting so long to take me to the clinic initially. There were yelling matches, my dad threatened to kick me out, until one day I got super pissed and basically yelled all this at them.