I’m not “too young to be in pain”

An incident when I was 14 years old caused me to develop chronic lower back pain. It is undiagnosed to exactly what the problem is, no imaging shows any problems.
And when I was 20 years old, I crashed a dirt bike, giving myself a severe concussion and a shoulder injury. No broken bones or any issues visible on any imaging. I do suffer from severe headaches from time to time as well.

I have seen many physiotherapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, surgeons and other doctors/specialists. I have tried all sorts of medications, therapies, injections and procedures.

3 years after my shoulder injury, I had decompression surgery that didn’t resolve any issues. A hole was found in my muscle, so that was stitched back together, the surgeon was hopeful this would solve my issues, it didn’t.

Right before I injured my shoulder, I finally found some temporary relief for my back pain. I go for nerve blocks for my back (in another province from my own) and they give me around 6 months of relief. It is a very painful procedure and healing time, but it is worth it to be free of back pain for a while.

In terms of my shoulder pain now and the time in between nerve blocks, I just have learned to live with the pain. Some days are better than others and I usually know my limits in terms of activity, lifting and carrying.

I am 27 years old now and up until very recently, everyone has always said I’m “too young to be in pain”.

This is not only infuriating to hear, but is completely invalidating and unhelpful. Pain does not discriminate and the second someone has said this to me, I lose all hope in getting any help from them. If you believe that pain only effects older people, you are vastly mistaken.

I do believe that my chronic pain has made me resilient and great at advocating for myself. A great analogy I once heard and resonate with in explaining pain was that: pain is like a smoke alarm constantly going off, sometimes the alarm is really loud and all you can focus on, other times it is quieter and you are able to tune it out.

The time between my first nerve block and my shoulder injury was the first time in 7 years that I was pain free. I remember saying to my mom that my brain was empty because the pain “alarm” wasn’t going off. I didn’t know what to think or focus on, there was nothing to consciously or subconsciously focus on. Unfortunately 3 months later was when I injured my shoulder and the alarm hasn’t been off since.

I hope one day that there will be something that can help.