Living with chronic pain is disabling. For some sufferers it is the primary complaint of diseases such as fibromyalgia and for others it might be a progression of a degenerative disease such as osteoarthritis (Mao 2017).

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It's widely accpeted that you cannot treat chronic pain the same as acute pain. Patients have to manage their lifestyles and their own expectations (and possibly the expectations of family, friends and work colleagues). A more long term approach must be taken and patients encouraged to reflect and self-manage themselves with the guide of a clinician . Too often patients with chronic pain problems are looking for a magic bullet and will hang all of their hopes on a single treatment such as steroid injections. It’s only when they start to reflect on their activities, lifestyle and stressors that they can truly manage their condition and move forwards.

I've put together a list of techniques that I use myself to help manage my chronic pain that's resulted in a total knee replacement revision. I paticularly find exercise really helps me. If I am consistent and don’t push too hard then my knee feels loose and I can manage the pain quite well. However, if I get over zealous in the gym or do a really long walk I will suffer for a couple of days afterwards.

Read through and let me know what you think. Feel free to leave your tips in the comments.

References:

Mao J. Challenges of managing chronic pain BMJ 2017; 356 :j741 doi:10.1136/bmj.j741