Philip Kass spends 90% of his day lying on a twin bed in a sparsely decorated room that used to belong to his niece. He takes most meals with a plate balanced on his chest, and he usually watches television because reading is too stressful.
“I’m barely living,” he told me on a warm night in June last year.
Ever since a back injury 23 years ago, pain has been eating away at Kass’s life. It has cost him his career, his relationships, his mobility and his independence.
Now 55, Kass lives with his sister and her family in San Francisco, California. He occasionally joins them for dinner, which means he’ll eat while standing. And once a day he tries to walk four or five blocks around the neighbourhood. But he worries that any activity, walking too briskly or sitting upright for more than a few minutes, will trigger a fresh round of torment that can take days or weeks to subside.
“It’s just paralysed me,” he says.
Read more here:https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-023-00869-6/index.html