My father & mother in law went through their lives until they were in their 90's relatively pain free & healthy. My father said he had never had a headache. My father in law never seemed to be ill in all the years I knew him. My mother always seemed old to me & in a lot of pain. The older I get the more I think that Genetics has a lot to do with health - I am my mother reincarnated. Fortunately I don't think my daughter will follow my genetics, she has my mother in law's body.
38% of adults in the UK were in daily chronic pain in 2020. Over 8 million people in the UK said they have chronic pain 19.5 million people in the UK were in pain at least once a day. Chronic Pain affects 1 in 3 young adults
https://www.formulatehealth.com/blog/chronic-pain-statistics-uk-2020
You would think that statistics like that would mean that there would be lots of research into pain & effective treatments. Versus Arthritis has produced a new report on Chronic Pain this year (2021). The recommendations starting on Page 93 make interesting reading to someone like me, because there is little similarity to our lived experience.
https://www.versusarthritis.org/media/23782/chronic-pain-report-june2021-print-friendly.pdf
Chronic pain is largely unseen, unless like me you have "flare ups". Normally I look normal. During the current episode I have barely been able to walk, stand, sit, lie down, carry anything or dress myself. When it's that bad I look like the elderly woman I am. The pain & lack of sleep is exhausting. You are isolated in a cocoon of disability & pain especially if you live alone. Nothing seems to work.
Doctors prescribe drugs of varying efficacy to treat the symptoms. Alternative therapists can help a lot, but in my experience temporarily. That is a lifeline though. Exercise, distraction technique, pacing & a positive attitude helps a lot. Each chronic pain sufferer has to find what works best for them.
But we all need the medical community to adopt the recommendations for treatment plans sooner rather than later, because living with pain is no fun, however positive you try to be.
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