After a fall six months ago I spent five hours in A&E. I was told that recovery would be months not weeks. I thought I was prepared for that then the pain and muscular problems kicked in. I couldn’t get into bed one night because of muscle spasms and there are days when getting out of bed is almost impossible. I have to bathe using a bath stool because my back muscles can’t take my weight. One day the pain can be minimal and within hours it can be barely bearable. 

I expected to have a period of acute pain but I am having to come to terms with the fact that I may never be free from chronic pain.

I want to talk about pain on social media but I don’t want to sound like I’m moaning. We’re encouraged to talk about mental health but not so much physical pain. Perhaps I’m considered to be falling into a pit of self-pity but I want to talk about it in the same way that I talk about mental health.

A recent two day trip to  London was fabulous but the mattress on the bed was too soft and I’m still feeling the pain a week later. I am wary about going away for even a few days at a time because of that experience but I am not one to give in or give up so I will find away around it.

A the risk of sounding surly I don’t want advice about handling the pain because, in the same way I’ve learned to managed my mental health, I have to learn how to manage pain. It’s not a matter of coping with it it’s a matter of managing the results of it.