Well, I have chronic pain almost 20 years and it's really affecting my daily life; emotionally, mentally, physically.
I've been living with chronic pain for over 15 years. Even the weather condition will change your day. With chronic pain, it's not something that just goes away. Sometimes it feels like there is no treatment that will work, or this is not ending.
Many people in our community are living with chronic pain.
Chronic pain is different for everybody.
For some people their chronic pain might be headaches. Other people, it's deep down in the pelvis. It might be lower back pain. So there are just so many manifestations of chronic pain.
And for other people it involves their whole body, and that's not unusual.
Living with pain that does not go away can affect more than just the body.
It can also affect mood, sleep, energy, and daily life.
It can make people feel tired, stressed, frustrated, or less able to do the things they enjoy.
So it's around here, is it?
Yeah.
When I have my bouts of chronic illness and chronic pain, chronic fatigue, it tends to also come with anxiety and some depression as well.
Just laying in bed, doing nothing.
I felt hopeless, and especially when mentally hit me like: "No,
I don't want to wake up. I don't want to go to work. I don't want to do nothing. I just want to take some painkillers."
Because at the end of the day, the painkiller is helping you to ease your pain, but it doesn't resolve your pain.
Doesn't help you.
I felt burden on my family because I wouldn't be able to do stuff like I used to do, so they helped me a lot too: "Mom, come on, get up. Let's go for a walk."
Grandkids, you know when they coming and they saying: "Mama, can you come just a little bit to play?"
So they were my motivation to realise and change my mindset to saying: "Hey, you want to be sitting on a sofa, sorry for yourself because you have pain?"
"No, I don't want that."
Medication was my first thing, but I quickly realised it was helpful for a short while, but then I was not going to rely on it for a very long time. I don't want to be on that medication for the rest of my life.
Most pain medications can't fix chronic pain for good.
The medicine can only help reduce pain for a short time.
Medications and tablets can be a really useful part of a good chronic pain management plan, but they are not the whole plan. And whilst there is a role for them, it's not a big role unfortunately. And I don't want you to focus on tablets because they're unlikely to be the whole solution to this, and I think they're best taken, and they're most effective when they're taken as part of a good holistic plan.
Medication will help to a certain point, but they also come with their own side effects, and so I have to work with my GP to look at my other illnesses and other symptoms that can pop up because of medication.
The aim of taking medicine is to reduce pain, to help you stay active.
They usually work best when used for short-term flares or pain.
There are many things people can do to reduce pain.
Moving regularly, starting small, and doing what feels manageable can help people stay active and feel better over time.
In chronic pain, the brain is sort of telling the body that it's in a lot more pain than what it actually is. People, they do an activity, they're in a lot of pain, and they stop doing that activity.
So what happens over time is that people get more weaker, they get stiffer, and it flares up their pain with just barely doing anything. So by breaking that cycle, people can start to do a little bit more. So you've got to start to do a little bit of activity to break that pain cycle.
I needed to do something. So the first thing I did was have that conversation with the professionals, with my social circles, and even looking out for people who are living with chronic pain to share that experience, to say: "How are you managing your pain?"
Hurting doesn't always mean harm.
The body can keep sending pain signals even when nothing is being damaged.
Usually the people that do well, and that is common to those that do well, is people that accept that this is going to take a little bit of effort, unfortunately, on their part.
Accepting a little bit of advice, trying new things, accepting that a lot of this is not about surgery or medicines, but actually it's about things that they can do in their everyday life, which are actually cost free. Yay.
So a little bit of exercise, for example, actually does work.
Swimming has multiple health benefits, and I recommend it to a lot of my patients.
It's a high intensity, high resistance sport, but low impact, so it gives you a great workout, but it's nice and gentle on your joints and your muscles. It's great for a diverse range of people, whether they be young, old, healthy, or have multiple medical conditions. And with people with different fitness levels, it can benefit a lot of people.
I'm getting better bit by bit.
Physios can help people to understand the pain.
They can also provide a gradual increase in their activities and exercises. They make sure that it's safe and that it's personalised to that person. That, in turn, can help with motivation and confidence.
I started looking into acupuncture for overall pain relief, and that's the one thing, along with nutrition, that has really helped.
Because it's chronic pain, it comes all the time, so every few weeks, do a session for acupuncture, allied health like podiatry or physio, all of that.
There is no one best way to manage chronic pain.
What helps one person may not help another, so it's important to find the right balance for you.
Small steps can lead to big changes.
I had to try several things. Don't just stop at one thing. You try several things. If this doesn't work, try another one, try another one.
Understanding how you feel, gauging your feelings, your mood, and definitely that will help. Just keep moving. Just keep trying things.
My chronic pain doesn't like me moving around, and so I know that because the pain doesn't like me moving around, I want to move around more. That's one of the things always playing in my head to say: "Yep, you don't want me to move?"
"Now I'm going to move."
I try to keep myself busy, and that doesn't give me any chance to think about my chronic pain.
Yeah, bingo, Freddy!
Bingo.
Freddy!
Chronic pain can be managed, and people are not alone in working out what is best for them. If pain is part of your life, a doctor or allied health professional can support you to move well and manage pain.
