Help to heal after 17 years of chronic pain

I have been Living with chronic pain since 2007, more severe since 2009 & I finally know which. I need your help while I rest and recover with my arm in a sling for 3-6 weeks so my shoulder can heal and stop causing disabling pain, but I don't have the money to be able to just stop working and it may be ok by the time I could get any benefits. I am also offering rewards for different donation amounts, specially made wands and charms, to be done when I have recovered

In 2007, I was in a car accident. I thought I walked away unharmed, but I have been living with chronic pain almost ever since - around 17 years, I always suspected the car accident as a factor but never got taken seriously by doctors or had someone find this injury until now. I’ve been trying to find out what it is for at least 15 years & the physiotherapist found this long-term injury to my sternoclavicular joint (the joint where the collarbone meets the sternum), caused by the car accident but worsened by hypermobility which him and a gp told me I do have and was told I might have as a child.

This pain and trying to find out what it is has affected my life for nearly 18 years, since I was 19 years old. It’s contributed to disabling chronic pain, limited my ability to work, and caused exhaustion and headaches that have shaped almost everything I do.

For years, I’ve been treated as if it was all in my head, dismissed, told it was “just stress" maybe fibromyalgia, even alternative practitioners told me I couldn't still be in pain from the car accident and other accidents and surgeries. I had physio before that helped a bit with other pain and seemed to improve my head a bit but the physio showed me that this injury causes strain and pain in all the muscles that I've had pain in for the last 16-17 years and also all the places he showed me I might have headaches caused by it where the places I've been struggling with headaches and very little help and the only thing that's ever given me reprieve from pain is rest and limiting what I can do

Now that I finally have answers, I’m doing what I can to heal — but I can’t do it alone and don't have much of a safety net.

I’m currently wearing a sling and under strict physiotherapy guidance. I can barely use my left arm, which makes creating art, crafting ritual tools, doing manual tasks, or driving painful or impossible. This is the work I rely on to survive, and without it, I’m not really bringing in any income right now.

I could choose to keep working in pain like I have been for years and hope that I can somehow save enough to wear this sling and rest and heal the shoulder that's the most painful, but I have to do the right one either after or at a later date too, at least once I have done my dominant hand/arm it should be easier

I’m hoping to raise enough to cover:

• 3-6 weeks of living costs

• Travel to a gathering where I can rest, receive care, and also deliver the art I already have made to the shop where it is sold

• Possibly enough stability to plan treatment for my right shoulder too as ideally I would sling that for 3 weeks after this one as I'm injured on both sides, and still take it easy for weeks after.

I’ve asked for support before. Some people may remember a smaller fundraiser a few years ago, when I thought I had finally found the root cause of my pain, that discovery helped with some symptoms — especially in my neck and lower body — but now I know I am also hypermobile and have been living with injuries to both of these joints that support and stabilise the shoulder and with them not doing there job properly everything else has been tense and in pain for years and years

Rewards

£15 a found piece of characterful wood from a sacred place that will either have the corresponding tree ogham symbol or a rune on it

£30 a simple charm of wood or beechnut, hazelnut or acorn with a crystal

£50 a simple live wood Wand from an Ancient woodland somewhere in the Uk

£60 a more elaborate charm made of either beechnut, acorn top, hazelnut shell and a crystal on a hemp cord

£100 a live or found wood wand either featuring more elaborate wood carving and or a crystal/s

£80 a dream catcher made from colourful hemp and feathers and crystals

£150 a more elaborate most likely found wood wand with more crystals and details on it

please indicate with a donation if you want one of the rewards and leave contact details or email me on jw1204@gmail.com I will be aiming to make them in the next 3-6 months depending on complexity and how long it takes to heal, and how much I may need to prioritise stocking the shops I sell things in. Postage will also need to be paid separately at the time of completion

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for witnessing this turning point in my healing. It’s taken me a long time to get here and there's a lot of grief to process about how long this took to find too