WHAT HAPPENED?

EPISODE 1 The Beginning.

I woke up in a cabin in the woods, alone, and struggling to get out of bed. Wait! It's not as scary as it sounds. It was July of 2022 and I was in the guest cabin of one of my hosts on a beautiful lake in Northern Minnesota - or "Up North" as most Minnesotans like to say. As beautiful as it was, I woke up and I HURT. I rolled over and felt as though all of my bones had been fused together and my muscles were on fire. "Oh my God!" I thought, "WHAT HAPPENED?"

At first, I thought I had slept on a HORRIBLE bed. Next, I thought I had possibly eaten something on my list of many foods to which I had sensitivities and possible allergies (more about this later). Then, I chocked it up to lack of exercise which, of course, made no sense since I was in the middle of choreographing a musical for a popular regional theater. Out of exasperation, I ended up ignoring it until I "had TIME" to deal with it. I slogged through each day pretending and convincing myself - "I DON'T HURT: THIS IS ONLY IN MY HEAD!". The denial worked for a minute. However, the pain came back every time I had down time. No amount of herbal remedies or alternative therapy was helping. Finally, I had no choice - I had to seek help. Thus, I embarked on what would be the beginning of a months long struggle to discover the origins - the root causes - of my musculoskeletal pain; a journey that would cause me to face my childhood trauma, my struggles with adult relationships and abuse, and subsequent alcohol use disorder. Welcome to My Fibro Life: a Black Woman's Journey through Chronic Pain.

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Karen Palmen, EdD is a veteran educator in Saint Paul, Mn. She teaches Dance and English at Saint Paul Central High School. She has an active TikTok page that features humorous, political, and educational content (kickin it with karen). And a a dormant YOUTUBE channel , with the same name, featuring fermented foods and other cooking oddities.