I know what pain feels like. So do you. I also have limited experience with chronic pain. What I don’t know is what it’s like to live with chronic pain as a constant companion, day-after-day and year-after-year, to the point of feeling that life is hopeless. And yet there are people who live with that experience. I know some of them.
An estimated 21% of America’s population is living with chronic pain at any point in time. In addition, about 8% live with high impact chronic pain (HICP), which is to say pain significant enough to impact daily functioning. Finally, the one-year recovery rate for chronic pain is only 10%.
I don’t know about you, but those numbers are shocking to me. I am especially surprised by the low one-year recovery rate. If the data is accurate, then 90% of patients diagnosed with chronic pain in a given year are still not pain-free a year later.
Pain Levels Vary
One of the things that medical science seems to struggle with, in terms of treatment, is the fact that pain levels vary greatly. One of the people I know with persistent pain finds it almost debilitating. Her daily activities are severely limited because she can barely move without inflicting more pain on herself.
By contrast, I know another person who experiences the same kind of low back pain. But for him, it is not debilitating. He is still highly functioning. It’s clear that his pain experience is quite different from the other person’s. His pain level is not nearly high.
This is just one of the many characteristics of chronic pain that make it so difficult to treat. Doctors cannot turn to some sort of imaging or blood test to figure out how badly a patient feels. A doctor can only ask questions and come up with a pain rating based on a patient’s answers.
When there is no concrete way to measure pain, how do you treat it effectively? That is the challenge. And because so many doctors are not up to that challenge, their patients can be left feeling helpless and hopeless.
A Lack of Education
I did some research a while back and discovered that pain management is not something medical schools spend a lot of time on. Therefore, newly graduated doctors know very little about treating chronic pain. Only those who go on to specialize in pain medicine receive advanced training.
The net effect of this surprising lack of education is that most doctors never get beyond conventional therapies. When a patient complains of chronic pain, the first course of action is OTC pain relievers or prescription NSAIDs. If they do not help, it’s on to surgery. The third and final option is prescription painkillers.
Fortunately, there are exceptions to the rule – like the KindlyMD clinics in Utah. KindlyMD takes a complete care approach that combines a variety of treatments including behavioral therapy, plant-based medicines, and lifestyle changes.
A Different Outlook
My interactions with chronic pain patients have opened my eyes to a lot of things. For example, I fully understand why some patients are willing to do just about anything to find some relief. I get why the vast majority of people who jump through hoops to get medical cannabis cards rely on cannabis to manage their pain.
People who know chronic pain as a constant companion tend to have a quite different outlook on life. That outlook could be one of hopelessness if a patient has tried everything under the sun but found no relief. It is a difficult position to be in.