It was November 2023 when I was at my computer just sending off an email to my daughters dance studio about her participating in the local Christmas Parade. That’s when I got a call from the school nurse. “She hurt her knee standing up from her desk at school, it looks pretty swollen and she’s in quite a bit of pain.” she relayed to me. Little did I know that would be my introduction into the strange and terrifying world of pediatric chronic pain conditions.

The inciting incident.

My daughter is eleven and in sixth grade. When she got home from school she was limping …