Living with chronic pain means adapting and learning ways to navigate and deal with it every day. The twelve Ps offer a road map to managing activities, stressors and challenges we face daily.
Prevention
This is anticipating triggers that exacerbate pain and doing whatever is necessary to reduce them in our lives. Look into:
- Bedding, lighting, timing and clothing- it impacts a good night’s sleep.
- Stay active mentally and physically.
- Practice healthier lifestyle habits- exercise, eat minimally processed foods, include anti-inflammatory foods in your diet, reach and maintain a healthy weight.
- Ensure your work space, cars, home, and most used items are ergonomic.
All will help to minimize pain and prevent exacerbations.
Physical
Exercise, exercise, exercise seems anathema to chronic pain suffers. But the old adage, “move it or lose it,” couldn’t be truer.
Start slow and break it up. A couple of minutes throughout the day is a great start. Then increase one minute each time, every week. It won’t feel overwhelming, and it’ll get you in the habit of exercising regularly.
This will improve flexibility, reduce joint inflammation, strengthen muscles and release feel good hormones (check out Tuesday exercise posts for ones you can even do in a chair or bed.)
Unsure where to start? Get guidance from your medical provider or physical therapist.
Provider
Seek out your medical provider for a thorough exam and possible interventions that might be appropriate to your situation.
Different medications can lessen particular pain complaints e.g. muscle spasms, neuropathic, acute exacerbations vs chronic, and sleep disturbances.
Orthotics, acupuncture, injections, topicals, weight loss, as well as physical and emotional therapies can be a valuable resource as well.
There are so many options available today. Find out which combination can help you.
Prepare
The newest literature explains how chronic pain can persist long after an inciting event is gone.
Childhood issues, persistent emotional or physical impacts over time can be why the brain gets hypersensitive and eventually re-wires pathways that enhance pain reactions.
That’s why it may be impossible to define the exact cause of pain today.
Understanding how this happens, seeing how it may be affecting your life and learning ways to stop the cycle is imperative.
Pace
Learn to pace yourself.
Break tasks into several manageable pieces. If too hard to clean the entire bathroom at one time, break it into smaller tasks. Just the toilet. The next day, the floor. Set up a regime that gets whatever is required accomplished throughout the week. I clean out the refrigerator the day before the garbage is collected. Water plants on Saturday. Wash clothes on Sunday. When I stick to the schedule everything gets done and I’m not overwhelmed.
And when it’s just too much, I let the tasks that aren’t important go.
Pause
Don’t forget to take breaks.
Can’t fold all the clothes at one time? Read a chapter in a book, the newspaper, call a friend… then finish. It doesn’t have to get done all at once.
Plan ahead depending on the time or activity and not just based on pain or fatigue. This keeps you proactive, not reactive. You make the decision when to stop, not your pain.
Even a quick break to breathe before carrying on can make all the difference in being able to finish what you start without suffering afterward.
Prioritize
Decide which tasks need to be done and when.
Give each a value and timeframe. Feeding and/or cleaning up after your pets is far more important than making a bed. The latter won’t make or break the day. Others can be done weekly, like watering the plants. Or monthly like replace air conditioning filters.
Once the order of importance is decided, allot times that work best throughout the day and week.
This way the activities that mean the most can be resolved when your energy is highest, minimizing pain and maximizing efficiency.
Plan
Schedule each day’s needs, allowing time for breaks, rest and relaxation. Nothing is perfect. Issues always arise. But planning ahead for the day or week can ensure it’s laid out in a way that’s manageable and effective.
For me I have all my clothes and accessories picked out the night before. That way I don’t have to worry they’re ready to wear or comfortable for the next day’s events.
I also intermingle and rotate tasks depending on how much time and energy they will require and break up my exercise regimen into tolerable chunks throughout the day.
Position
This can be from maintaining proper posture, lifting properly, using assistive devices that help tasks e.g. long-handled reaching poles, long-handled brooms, or items that help to open jars, close zippers, and put on shoes.
Adapt the environment. Use a cushioned mat when standing on tile. Keep regularly used items easily accessible without the need to reach up or down. Use individual laundry packs so heavy bottles aren’t lifted. Sit down to fold clothes.
Psychological
We are not just physical beings. Focusing on just that aspect of our pain and denying all the frustration, anxiety, depression and feelings our chronic pain causes, ignores a reality that impacts us of every day.
How we feel affects our pain. Establish strong social support and learning techniques like guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation, deep breathing, distraction.
Seek out counseling and medication treatments when necessary.
These are integral parts of pain management.
Pain varies
No two days are the same.
Some are great and we feel we can conquer the world.
Other days it’s worse than ever. Leaving us frustrated, tired and disappointed. Remembering that our pain levels change we can plan for those ups and downs by not overdoing on the good days and crawling into bed on the bad ones. Both extremes keep us repeating a loop we can’t stop.
Follow a schedule, take breaks as needed and push to the limits, but not beyond, will help.
Proper lifting
We lift all day long, usually without even thinking. The grocery bags into the car. Our pets when they get into mischief or need grooming. The laundry basket. Making sure it’s done safely is key.
Keep legs shoulder-width apart for a good support.
Bend only at the hips and knees.
Maintain a healthy posture.
Lift by straightening hips and knees.
Hold item at waist level as close to the body as possible.
Following the twelve Ps of pain management is a way to organize and better manage your days in order to reduce pain and improve quality of life. Staying active, safely, is the key. And take control of how you spend your time so you, not the pain, decide how it will be spent.
