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Writer's pictureGracie Bagosy-Young

What The Eye Cannot See-CRPS

What do you see? A woman standing on her yak showing off? Likely.


Let me tell you what you don’t see. This is a woman that has been in a battle against her body and her mind for well over a decade. She has an incurable condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome that lives in her Central Nervous System. You don’t see the 17 surgeries her body has endured, the 47 infusions, the many procedures, or the countless OTC treatments. You could not possibly see the years of physical therapy she had to endure in order to raise her arms above her head, much less the tearful years of occupational therapy it took her to be able to manipulate her fingers just to grip that oar. There is no way that you can see the daily efforts she takes to remove negativity and stress from her life to calm her immune system. You do not see the nutritional education she had to seek to completely change her dietary habits in order to bolster her weakened immune system, because chronic pain is inflammatory-and so is crappy food! You don’t see that she has a lower back injury that cannot be surgically repaired due to the risk of the CRPS spreading. You cannot see her fear. Her doctors have repeatedly told her that she will never be able to participate in activities with her arms again. You cannot see that this very moment has been on her bucket list for FIVE years, ever since her first visit to Florida when she watched a few ladies stand-up paddleboard on a calm lake. You cannot see the alligator that she spotted on the shore a few minutes prior! You don’t see her husband just out of camera range, protectively hovering because she lost her balance and fell off the board into the chilly water on her first try. That chilly water caused her pain and the current was stronger than her arms with CRPS could handle. Although she has on a life jacket, he had to rescue her. Her arms were in too much pain for her to hoist herself back up onto her board.


You cannot see the depths of her conviction. This is her second attempt. This is her triumph over fear!


She is me. I am she. Gracie Bagosy-Young ~SURVIVOR~

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3 Comments


Jeremy Batterman
Jeremy Batterman
Oct 29, 2023

Done how I missed so many on your posts. Your version of CRPS is much worse than mine. But it sucks! I am sorry you have you do not deserve it. No one does! Although do wish people could get a taste of it and being told their is nothing they can do and those things you love to do, probably not going to work out, so learn how to live with it. Or it’s all in your head, there is nothing wrong with your arm (which is true but not in the way they mean).


My favorite is every time you go to a Doctor or a clinic, I feel as though I have to justify the pain, I…


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loriwaukee
Mar 02, 2022

Go Gracie!!!!!

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Gracie Bagosy-Young
Gracie Bagosy-Young
Mar 02, 2022
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