Chronic Pain 1

Hey everyone. It’s Dr. Hurley at Hurley Chiropractic. We’re talking about this topic of chronic pain. And as a chiropractor, I work with those who experience chronic pain every single day. It is one of the most rewarding parts of my job to be able to help somebody who has chronic pain to get some relief or to manage their symptoms. But it’s also very bittersweet part of my job, and I’ll get to the bittersweet part here in a little bit. But I do have a message for everybody out there that experiences chronic pain. My message is give yourself some grace, please be easy on yourself. Please recognize that what you are doing every single day is harder because you have chronic pain. It’s more draining, it’s more exhausting. And it takes more effort to plan your day’s activities, to plan your fun social activities as well as your daily living activities and chores around your pain to manage it. And if you’re someone that chronically experiences pain, you may not even realize you are doing it.

So I’m going to give some examples. If you plan your social outings, maybe when you go to the movies, you choose certain seating to help minimize your discomfort while you’re watching the movie. If you plan your chores, like your grocery shopping and your cooking on separate days, because long periods of standing drains you or exacerbates your chronic pain. If you are planning your daily life around needing breaks or needing to manage your pain. That’s a lot. And so I do want to give all of you this message. If you relate to this topic of chronic pain, give yourself some grace. Take care of yourself and recognize that you are doing so much more than you think you’re doing. If you feel like you’re not getting enough done on your to-do list, or you feel frustrated or hopeless looking around thinking of all the things you’ve got to do. And you do not have the energy or the strength, or even the endurance of not wanting to exacerbate your pain to do that. Just take a minute to pat yourself on the back and take care of yourself.