Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is often defined as persistent pain lasting in a certain area for more than 6 months and remaining for years.

This pain can be mild or severe, episodic or continuous, merely inconvenient or in some cases totally incapacitating. Impact of this is massive, it can both take a physical and emotional toll on a person’s life. The most common source of pain stems from the pain of injuries, joint paint, backaches and headaches. Chronic pain may originate from an accident, injury or infection. Long term Chronic Pain can have a huge impact on people’s emotional wellbeing. Emotions such as anxiety, stress, depression, anger and fatigue interact in complex ways with chronic pain making the pain worse.

People who suffer from chronic pain complain about symptoms such as:

• Pain that may be described as shooting, burning, aching or electric

• Soreness, toughness, stiffness and discomfort

• It can make people feel fatigue, sleeplessness and withdrawn

• Weakened immune system

• Mood changes, anxiety, depression, irritability and stress

Health trainers in Burngreave are now trained to give one to one support to those suffering with chronic pain. You may self-refer or ask your GP about Health Trainers.

A pain self-care tool kit has been developed by Pete Moore who suffers from persistent pain himself. Here are some of his guidelines on how to manage chronic pain:

1. Accept that you have pain or long term conditions… and then begin to move on

2. Get involved – building a support team

3. Pacing yourself

4. Learn to prioritise and plan out your days

5. Setting goals and action plans

6. Being patient with yourself

7. Learn relaxation skills

8. Stretching & exercise

9. Keep a dairy and track your progress

10. Have a setback plan

11. Team work

12. Keeping it up… putting the tools into daily practice

For more information on these go to http://www.paintoolkit.org/mobile

Learning to cope

(This story is based on a real person’s experience but the name has been changed)

After a bad fall, Sharon’s life was changed forever. The fall caused long term damage to her back which left her with severe pain and restricted movement.

Sharon had been a very active person, who loved exercising and had a full time job. The accident meant time off work which, after a few months led to financial difficulties. Not being able to do normal everyday activities or regular exercise as she had previously enjoyed, made her feel down, resulting in depression.

Sharon’s doctor referred her to a Health Trainer, who can really focus on talking about how to cope with pain. Sharon was able to speak to the Health Trainer about the sense of loss she felt because she wasn’t able to lead the active life she once had. The Health Trainer helped her to think about new things she could do, such as swimming or yoga, developing new IT skills and identifying things to enjoy like reading. The Health Trainer helped Sharon make a plan for the next 12 months, which included pacing herself and introducing new activities gradually depending on how she was feeling.

After just 6 sessions with the Health Trainer, Sharon could now think about returning to work, using her new IT skills, and look forward to things she enjoyed. She also felt she had more control over what she did, on days when pain was bad she could take it easy and on better days be more active.

For further support contact the Burngreave Health Trainers, Somshun Nessa, Pamela Daniel and Sophina Asghar (Urdu speaking) at Sorby House on 213 2591

Sponsored by Sheffield City Council’s Healthy Communities Programme