My life as a heartsink patient: living with chronic pain

摘要

I was like you once. Some patients would literally make my heart sink. Patients with chronic insoluble problems and their general misery often left me feeling exhausted. They seemed to come to clinic just to complain about how fed up they were. Then one day my life changed forever. After a ski trip I developed backache. When self-treatment failed I sought medical advice and ended up having surgery, which has left me with chronic pain. I have gone from being able to run, bike, and climb mountains to struggling with the stairs. There is some variation from day to day, but in the last 6 years there is not a day that I have not had some pain.