I have started a blog, to try and accomplish a number of goals.
1) Retain what sanity I have left while unemployed and going to doctors
2) Spread awareness about TN and ATN
3) Share my results with my fellow fighters here
I am still not sure where I stand on #1, but I have made progress on #2 and I want to start #3. 2 months ago I started a blog called Masking The Pain at maskingthepain.com. For it, I being a type 2 sufferer, paint my face where it hurts, when I get break through pan (almost daily)
. I find it therapeutic, and brings some joy to an other wise joyless, harmful experience. I have begun wearing the pain masks in public. It shows my friends and family when I am having a really bad day (bigger painting.) It also gives me a reason to bring it up and teach strangers about it. Makes my invisible illness visible. It is also something to get up and do in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.
I was hoping anyone here who wants to could hop over to maskingthepain.com and check out my work and tell me what you think. maybe share your stories with me. If you feel like it and if you can touch you face I would love to post other peoples "mask art" or for you type 1's who shudder at the thought of putting a brush to your skin, I was thinking if you took a photo of yourself you could paint, or color that, and then send that to me, again, only if you want to.
If you do want to participate in "masking the pain" you can email me at â– â– â– â– ,message me on this site, comment at maskingthepain.com, or if you want to send a paper letter I can send you my address.
Wow! Wonderful idea!! What paint do you use? Do you try to express the most painful areas with accents directly over those areas so that in a way the pain itself is the designer? Really, really cool! Best of luck!
I bought some cheap face paint back around Halloween at the local grocery store, So far it has served me well, I try to color in such a way that the pain defines the area. I have one that I have not posted where I started my night with a pretty snow flake design, but then my teeth started to hurt terribly, so I put ugly purple marks on my cheek where my teeth hurt. The main elements of each design are pain area, what I am doing that day, and what I can get the paint to do. :) Thank you for your compliments, I am having a lot of fun with it.
KilleR said:
Wow! Wonderful idea!! What paint do you use? Do you try to express the most painful areas with accents directly over those areas so that in a way the pain itself is the designer? Really, really cool! Best of luck!
It is a great way to raise awareness. I like your idea of people painting a photo if their hypersensitivity makes face painting not an option. In the grocery yesterday I had one of those “gentle breeze” attacks, yuck! In public? Really? Anyway, I had the thought that some form of protection might be helpful, like maybe latex paint or a patch? There is some paint called Gallery Glass. It is a faux stained glass paint and designs can be peeled off of slick surfaces and applied elsewhere with just a little splash of water.
I couldn’t afford to keep paying for the private URL. The site moved to www.maskingthepain.wordpress.com. it is still up. Thanks for the interest. I also now have some YouTube videos up, the channel is MaskingATNpain, and post photos to Instagram @MaskingATNPain.
I will be checking out your blog soon and could provide feedback if you like. I actually had an idea earlier of doing a paint on face mask for Halloween with TN.
Sure, I am always on the look out for comments on the blog, so if you comment there I’ll respond. I’m not really trying to do it from a professional writing stand point, it is more for outreach, and my own mental health and record keeping. So like editing feedback probably will be ignored, but any thoughts on topics that might be of interest, or things you would like to see as a fellow face pain person would be cool.
