THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRONIC PAIN
EAMONN: Very few people can really understand chronic pain unless they have it, or live with someone who does. If not every day, it’s there most days. People will say, ‘Where does it hurt? Why does it hurt?’ Both reasonable questions, but sometimes very hard to answer. It’s just there!
And so many of us suffer, for so many reasons. Back pain, neck pain, leg pain and everywhere pain, which could be under the mysterious umbrella of fibromyalgia. That’s more likely to be muscle pain than bone pain. And let’s not forget migraine pain. Whatever your pain, it’s you and your family living with it. Throughout my life, I have had to deal with really severe pain. People think that being told you need a double hip replacement is the end of it. That was the case for me at 27. My biggest regret was waiting until I was 55 before I had it done. Hip pain affects the back, the neck, the legs, the feet – but when I had my bi-lateral replacements, that took so much pain away.
Recently, though, I dislocated my pelvis. It definitely wasn’t as erotic as it sounds (!) – but the pain that has followed is more than I have ever known. It is morning, noon and more especially at night. I don’t know what the answer is, or how and when it will resolve itself, but through the reactions to sharing my own experiences on social media, I am stunned by the amount of you who have to live in pain. If any good comes out of my present condition (it appears to be a problem with my disc) maybe it will be that people will start talking, sharing and somebody, somewhere will take chronic pain more seriously than just something that a pill may temporarily stop.
‘So many of us suffer, for so many reasons’