Thankfully, Emmett’s in a good mood this morning because we finally understand why he’s been so frustrated with school and no longer wants to go. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers this morning and can put his fears to rest. I’ll explain more when I can. He’s not being bullied or anything like that. This has to do with what appears to be a classroom policy.

After that, the biggest thing we have going today is one of Lizze’s appointments at the Cleveland Clinic. One of her appointments today is very important, while the other is a routine follow-up.

Lizze is going into the pain management program at the Cleveland Clinic.

We’re heading to the amazing @ClevelandClinic today in order to find relief for my wife, who’s living with chronic pain. She lives with #Fibromyalgia, #EhlersDanlos and daily #migraines. We’re grateful to be meeting with pain management in hopes of finding new treatments. 1/3

— Rob Gorski (@The_Autism_Dad) September 19, 2018

This appointment is so important because Lizze has been living with severe, chronic pain for over a decade. She’s not been on any type of pain medication for at least the last eight years or so.

She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2005, after exhaustive, lengthy testing by one of the 50 fibromyalgia specialists in the country. Within the last five years, she’s been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos and if you’re a long time reader, you already know she’s been battling daily migraines for as far back as I’ve been writing.

Her migraines don’t respond to treatment and never have.

If you’re living with or are familiar with Fibromyalgia and Ehlers-Danlos, you know how incredibly painful they are. You should also be aware that there is no cure and treatments are very, very limited.

Pain meds are not always the answer because sometimes they don’t work and even if you take them exactly as prescribed, there are huge downsides to them as well.

Pain Management helps people to manage their pain. Sometimes that’s managing pain medication and sometimes it’s managing the pain in more natural ways. Sometimes it’s a combination of both or something else all together.

Either way, Lizze is very nervous about today because she’s all but lost hope that she can physically exist without being in excruciating amounts of pain. She’s also very much aware that some doctors still don’t believe in things like Fibromyalgia and end up treating people with invisible pain as though they are drug seekers, even if they don’t want pain medication.

It truly sucks.

I’m praying that there have been advancements in pain management over the last decade and she can finally find relief, at least to some degree. . If there’s any place in Earth that has a chance of helping her, it’s the Cleveland Clinic.