BY BIKRAM VOHRA
It is true. There are some ailments that get you no sympathy. Take migraine. It is one of those awful afflictions that leave you hating the world but all everyone can say is, cheer up. Cheer up, cheer up, you want to curl up and close out even a sliver of light and they want you to go ho, ho, ho.
See, if you don’t suffer from it others cannot understand. Take a backache. It is agony wrapped in helplessness but say you have a backache and no one around even stops in their conversation. After all, it is just a backache. No, it is not just a backache, it is flipping driving round the bend.
You get a spondylitis attack and you want to curl up and die and people are saying, oh come, let’s take you for a drive, you will feel better. What’s wrong with you? You think a drive will help me feel good when my neck is exploding off my shoulders.
Earaches and toothaches are in the same category. You can be ready to kill and you get advice or admonishment… uh oh, eating too many chocolates. The sufferer truly needs this scolding now when the distress is peaking.
A tennis elbow can be sheer torture. Take rest, they say. Don’t say anything, it is smarter.
Have you noticed that a common cold garners more sympathy. At least it attracts solutions from hot soup to inhaling vapours and all that stuff.
But tell anyone your kidney stones are bothering you and they’ll start discussing the latest hit movie.
Allergies are sheer torment. And since no one knows what to do they think it is semi funny. Haha, here comes another joke into your swollen face and teary eyes.
Vertigo, frozen shoulders, rheumatism, kidney stones, gout, they all fall into this category. If you are not bleeding and you don’t have fever you might get tea but no sympathy.