Chronic Pain--What Can We Do Today?

We all know someone who has chronic pain in one form or another. Fibromyalgia, neuralgia, arthritis, migraines, etc. My pain is from a pinched nerve in my neck and it affects my right shoulder and arm, and gives me a constant headache. Chronic pain is the hidden condition that we have to live with every day.

We have our good days and bad days, and it's a guessing game what we can actually do on any given day. On the good days, it may seem like we are pain free, and people may think that we’re faking our pain. We smile as if nothing is wrong, and when you ask us how we are, we’ll most likely say, “I’m fine.” What is really happening is our pain level is low enough that we are able to function on that day. We go out and do things that we’ve been wanting to do. Going to the movies with friends, browsing in the mall, or being able to do a hobby we love are what we want to be doing every day but can’t.

There are also the in-between days, where we have pain, but there are things that need to be done and we can function, but sometimes barely. Shopping, preparing meals, maybe just something as simple as getting dressed and taking a walk outside to get some exercise all need to be done to survive. We tolerate the pain because we have to do these things since they won’t do themselves, or we take our pain medications to be able to do what we need to get done. Those are the days I take ibuprofen and that will help with the pain.

The bad days are where it takes all of our effort just to get out of bed that day. Those are the days we want to just lie in bed or sit in the recliner. Sometimes we pay for our good days by having a bad day the next day. Yesterday I was able to bring the Christmas trees up from the basement because my pain was very low, almost non-existent (oh, but it still exists). I was even able to set the trees up. I’m paying for that today with a not so good day, but tolerable. I put on a pain patch and I’m able to do things. It’s not that we’ve done too much, it’s sometimes that we did anything at all. That is when our pain levels are so high we need to slap on a pain patch or take our pain medications, or both.

There are some pain meds that we have to take every day in order for them to work, and some that we take as needed. We then have to deal with the side effects of those medications on top of our pain. Sometimes I have to decide—do I want to be pain-free or do I want to be able to function? It depends on the level of pain on those days.

On my worst pain days, I cannot function to be able to write a complete coherent sentence or concentrate on the story. I try to read instead, but the pain seeps into the story and I have to put the book down. Those are the days I will take my pain meds and binge watch Days of Our Lives or The Crown. If I lie there long enough, I can maybe get my pain level down to where I can do what needs to be done, sometimes not.

I’ve found things that I can do things that help with the pain. Exercising my upper body helps the pain the next day, and if I exercise consistently, I have more good days. Resting in the middle of the day when I’ve been writing helps, otherwise by the end of the day, I’m in pain. I’ll usually eat my lunch at that time, watch something for an hour with my head, neck, and back supported, and I’m ready to conquer the rest of the day.

I also work part-time at a movie theater, and there are certain things I just can’t do on the job. I can’t throw trash bags into the compactor or my pain level shoots up the next day. Something must get pulled out of place when I do that. Sometimes I feel it right away, sometimes it can take as long as three days before my body realizes that something is wrong. We sometimes have to change out the boxes of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for our soda machine. I can change the lower ones, but not the higher ones on the rack. Even then, I tend to pull something out of place.

For those of us who have chronic pain, we’re just trying to figure out what we can accomplish on any given day. We take stock of our pain levels and plan accordingly. Sometimes we can’t accept that invitation to go out, but keep asking us. One time you’ll catch us on a good day and we can go and enjoy the day with you.

Chronic pain is something that is invisible to people, but we may be suffering in silence.