Impacts of Pain in my Life...

Pain has impacted my life; both emotionally and physically. I've suffered from lower back pain since my early 20s.

When I first started to experience "pain" I didn't even know it was considered pain because I wasn't familiar with it. About 10 years ago, my sister; who was going to Chiro school at that time; asked me to explain what I was feeling in my lower back and she asked me to describe the feeling and then she called it pain. I didn't know that feeling "pins and needles" was also considered a type of pain.

Before things got really bad, my body shifted and I was crooked. I didn't understand why? My leg was feeling numbness but I thought it was tight muscles. When I was finally checked; then did an MRI and discovered I had 3 herniated discs which then turned into foot drop and ended up having emergency surgery to fix the foot drop because the pain got really bad and I wasn't able to walk.

The emotional impact of pain is different for each person. For me, it was devasting when the pain was really bad. It took away my quality of life, my drive, and some of my passions as well. Till this day I live in fear of experiencing the same type of pain. I never want to experience that type of pain ever again so; I'm hesitant from doing certain things till this day.

Its been very helpful having health practitioners that understand how I'm feeling both physically and emotionally. It also helps to speak with other people who have gone through something similar. Also speaking to a therapist has also been very helpful.

I hope that the health industry can take education and support of pain to the next level because many suffer and are not fortunate to have the support I had.