A Fighter With A Purpose

 

🕊️ For More Than a Decade — Pain is Pain Has Been a Voice for the Unheard

For more than a decade, Pain is Pain has stood as a voice for the unheard — for the millions living with chronic, intractable pain who have been dismissed, denied, and left to suffer in silence.

This movement began with one woman’s voice — Cathy Kean — who turned her pain into purpose. Today, her story continues to inspire thousands across the chronic pain community.

Below is her story, shared in her own words.

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💔 Cathy’s Story

My name is Cathy Kean, and for 25 years I’ve lived with intractable chronic pain — the kind that never stops, never lets up, and never gives me a moment of peace.

It began with a botched surgery that left me with arachnoiditis, Stiff Person Syndrome, anemia, fibromyalgia, migraines, cluster headaches, arthritis, neuropathy, back spine, and neck issues and insomnia.

For years, appropriate medications allowed me to live with 95% functionality. I worked, raised my four children, and spent time with my nine grandchildren.

But today, I am bedridden 98% of the time. Even walking across my home can leave me passed out from sheer pain. I am not alone.

Across America, millions of chronic pain patients are being abandoned. Doctors are disappearing, treatments denied, and patients left to suffer — or worse. Some turn to the streets out of desperation. Others lose their lives.

Since 2016, restrictive policies and fear-driven misinformation about opioids have led to the collapse of pain care in the United States. Many compassionate doctors have been arrested or driven out of practice for simply trying to relieve suffering. The result? Countless patients left untreated, invisible, and hopeless.

I maintain a list of over 400 individuals who have died because their pain was ignored. Their names are a reminder that pain, untreated, kills.

Pain management is not a privilege — it is a human right, recognized by the United Nations. To deny access to care is not protection — it is cruelty.