SINGAPORE: In the morning on the day Nay Chi Khaing Zaw was to sell her art at a market, she was in agony.In the cab, before she reached the venue, her body began to shut down. As she turned pale, and her eyes rolled, a CNA producer asked anxiously: “Nay, are you okay?”“I had a seizure,” the 25-year-old said later. “(It) happens from time to time.”For her, such disruptions to her day are part of living with chronic pain. A flare-up can strike without warning and force her to decide whether to stop or push through the pain.
That morning, turning back would have meant losing the chance to recoup the S$60 rental fee for her booth through sales, so she pressed on.
Nay Chi having a non-epileptic seizure in the taxi.
Nay Chi lives with lupus, fibromyalgia, hemiplegic migraine, hypermobility and gastrointestinal issues. They can cause severe joint and muscle pain, heighten her pain sensitivity and produce stroke-like symptoms that affect her mobility.Or, in her words, the pain is “like lava flowing through the gaps” in her joints and like intense muscle cramps.When it becomes overwhelming, it can trigger seizures that typically last a few minutes, leave her fatigued and affect her short-term memory. Without pain medication, she said, she can experience up to six or seven seizures a day.Her experience of pain is not an isolated case. About one in 12 people in Singapore live with chronic pain, with women more likely to be affected than men.
