Pain 21

Abstract

In 2009, I survived a major haemorrhagic stroke, a result of a vicious attack of the shingles (varicella zoster) virus caused by the extreme immunosuppression used to unsuccessfully save my first kidney transplant. I now live with severe chronic pain and disability as a result. My aim in writing this narrative is to humanise the devastation and systemic brutality wreaked by extreme immunosuppression on the transplant recipient. Ultimately though, Pain 21 presents an overriding sense of the resilience of the human spirit, belonging, hope and gratitude for life.