Pain Awareness Month! 

Hello my lovelies, how are you all? 
I think it’s fair to say everyone in their life has experienced some kind of pain. wether it’s acute or chronic, pain is something we’ve all experienced and it’s horrid. 

Today is the beginning of “Pain Awareness Month” and I wanted to raise awareness for chronic pain as I live every second of everyday with it due to my illnesses so pain is something so raw to my heart. 

Firstly, What Is Chronic Pain? 

Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts longer than six months. Chronic pain can be mild or excruciating, episodic or continuous, merely inconvenient or totally incapacitating. With chronic pain, signals of pain remain active in the nervous system for months or even years. 

What Causes Chronic Pain? 

Chronic pain can be caused by all different things but the main causes include: 

• Trauma/Injury – which hasn’t healed
• Infection
• Illnesses/Conditions
• Nerve Damage / Trapped Nerve

Some kinds of chronic pain have numerous courses, take chronic back pain for example. Back pain can be caused by; 

• Years of poor posture
• Sleeping on poor mattresses
• Ageing
• Constant lifting of heavy objects

Although, In many cases the source of chronic pain can be a very complex and even mysterious issue to untangle. This also goes for treating chronic pain, it’s very tricky knowing what treatment will work best with the type of chronic pain your suffering from and the length of time you’ve been suffering. Unfortunately a lot of cases of chronic pain can’t be cured, the only treatments available are: 

• Pain Shots 
• Strong Pain Killers
• Steroids
• Interventious Infusions 
• Patches (morphine) 

Or alternative non-medical options which include: 

• Hot Water Bottle 
• Ibrulieve Gel
• Head Pads 
• Tens Machine 
• Acupuncture
• Gentle Exercise 
• Hypnotherapy 
• Mindfulness 
• Herbal Remedies

Pain. What is pain to me? How do i describe pain?

Pain to me is something I live with day in day out. With no pain relief what so ever as with my illnesses and the paralysis of my colon in particular I’m not allowed pain medication. Pain for me is probably one of the biggest battles I face, it’s a pain I couldn’t even describe. When people say to me is it a; throbbing pain? A sharp pain? A tingling pain? A thumping pain? A burning pain? One of them annoying pains? My answer is all of them. Pain isn’t something you can describe. It radiates throughout the body. It doesn’t just stay in one certain place, it travels. Pain is something which I’ve had to learn to live with it, by smacking a smile on my face and being determined to not let it get me down. I think knowing that the pain isn’t going to go away is one of the hardest things you will ever hear as even if it’s a slight pain the first thing you wish for is that it will go away so you feel normal again. But in three years I’ve learnt that this is normal for me. Wether I’m screaming in pain, crying, wishing it was going away the reality is – it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon! unfortunately this is the true reality for a lot of people around the world. Chronic pain is an invisible illness in itself. Chronic pain isn’t something you can see, it isn’t something you can turn round to someone and say they’ve got because most people just smile through it to hide from others. It’s something very hard to explain and you can’t pin point exactly how it is, what it is or why it’s chosen you. Chronic pain is chronic pain and that’s the reality of living life with these illnesses for myself & many others.

Chronic pain is a hard one to write about as like I’ve said previously, there’s no words to describe it. Only the person suffering knows exactly how it feels. 

There are millions of people worldwide suffering with pain. Suffering with agonising pain in silence. Please help me raise awareness for “Pain Awareness Month” by sharing this post and allowing people to know they aren’t alone in this fight. If someone you know suffers, please hug them (gently of course) and let them know your there fighting along side them. Suffering in pain can feel so lonely and so frustrating at times. 

Support & Awareness is key! 

Thank you so much for reading this post today! 
I hope your all as well as possible. 
Sending you tons of love as always,

Elle xo