Do you know pain? The creeping, dark fingers, that start with a twinging, almost delicate touch and gradually, over an hour or  a day or a week, grasp and claw and grab so tight and so hard that the imprints will never leave you?

Do you know pain? The sudden lightning bolt of agony that stops you, right in your tracks, and leaves you clinging, hanging on for dear life, to the back of a chair, the wall, the bathroom sink, thin air?

Do you know pain? The beast that lives in your pocket, hangs round your neck, drags behind you like Linus’ blanket, always there, reminding you, even though you’re incapable of forgetting?

Do you know pain? The attack on your body which in turn becomes an attack on your mind, turning headache into heartache, inflammation into preoccupation, agony into anger?

Me too.