Pat, a full-time mom in Birmingham, AL, discusses her experiences with endometriosis.
Can you tell me about when you first started experiencing the pain and what kind of pain it was?
Horrible back pain, to the point that I was bent forward, could not stand up straight, had to go to bed
Did you seek help right away?
Yes, and the doctors could not figure out what was causing such severe pain. I went to an orthopedic doctor because pain had begun to radiate out to my hips. Went to gastro doctor and had to do the barium swallow and …read more

This week, Jeannette Davis from Fairbanks, Alaska, talks to us about her migraines.
Can you tell me about when you first started experiencing the pain and what kind of pain it was?
Headaches, and I’ve had them all my life as long as I can remember.
Did you seek help right away?
No, I didn’t seek any help with the pain for a number of years. I thought it was normal because my Mom always had headaches, too.
What did the doctors tell you when you did seek help?
I was 27 when I finally talked to my doctor about it. I knew by …read more

Each Monday, I’ll be featuring someone who is living with or has lived with pain. I hope that their stories will help others find hope and, maybe, learn from each other. If you have a story to share, please email me and we can talk about it.
Our first guest is GT from Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Can you tell me about when you first started experiencing the pain and what kind of pain it was?
I started to have excruciating neck and head pain a few years ago after an attack of ADEM. Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is a neurological disorder characterized …read more

Back and/or neck pain is one of the most common complaints of pain in the Western world. Some statistics say that back pain is number two after colds for people going to see the doctor.
Back or neck pain can be caused by an injury to the vertebrae through lifting or turning improperly, or through an accident, like a fall. The result can be pain directly at the spot in the spine where the vertebra is damaged, or the pain can be referred, or move down to the leg. This can happen when the gel-like cushioning between the vertebrae is …read more

 
Acute pain is sudden pain, usually expected to be short term, and has an identifiable cause. This means a stubbed toe, whether it’s broken or just bruised, a broken bone, surgery, a tooth-ache, anything like that.
These are usually treatable pains. If you have appendicitis, surgery will remove the pain from the inflamed appendix – although you’ll be left with the pain from the surgery. The pain from a broken bone is fixed through setting and casting or bracing, or surgery – they have predicted pain-free outcomes.
However, if the bone doesn’t heal properly, or something goes wrong with the surgery, …read more