Things I didn’t know about chronic pain til I got chronic pain:

Chronic pain can change thru the course of a year, month, week, day or year. You can start an afternoon feeling ok and end up in a ball of pain by 7pm

Chronic pain in progressive conditions can’t be magicked away by exercise and diet alone. Everyone deserves healthcare appropriate to the symptoms they’re experiencing

Chronic pain can take different forms. For instance, joint pain is a different sensation to neuropathic pain. Chronic pain is different to acute pain. Also, you can have both at the same time

Doctors and nurses rely on physical “tells” more than patient description of pain to judge pain levels. If you’re non-neurotypical or acclimatised to pain you may not show those tells, leading to missed opportunities for pain management

Not all pain management is about mindfulness. Not all pain management is meds. The best pain management is wholistic

Some of the vital things ppl with chronic illness need are hard to get ongoing funding for: physiotherapy and personal care support

A “flare” is when a baseline experience of a chronic condition becomes acute. Many ppl learn how to self manage these incidents that may last days, weeks or months — but it doesn’t make it less painful

Just because you did something once doesn’t mean you can achieve it everyday. Chronic pain is unpredictable and tends to interrupt routine

Chronic pain is isolating. You lose friends who don’t understand it and jobs that can’t accommodate irregularity in capability

Ppl living with chronic pain still want to have a goddam life.

You can be chronically ill and not disabled. You can be chronically ill and disabled. You can be chronically ill and invisibly disabled and have everyone around you refuse to acknowledge you’re in pain and/or unable to meet your needs on your own without support