Sally, I’m sorry that you seem to have joined the “persistent pain” group. I prefer the term "persistent" rather than chronic because in some people’s minds the word chronic seems to mean that it will never change or get better; and I’ve found that it does both…before it rears up some place else.

The thing that has helped me the most is to put the experience of pain into perspective and to then approach it from the side of reasoning.
From the perspective side of things, I remind myself that pain is not necessarily an indication of tissue damage and sometimes it is experienced in place that has nothing to do where the damage is; even if there has been a trauma. Pain severity is also not a reliable indicator of severity of tissue damage.
For those of us with MS or other neurological conditions, this seems to be especially so, because the very system that conducts sensations is perturbed and/or dysfunctional.

Even for a person without the challenge of a nervous system dysfunction, this unreliability of pain sensation holds true.
Case in point: Have you ever had a brain freeze after consuming something cold? The pain is felt in the head or behind the eyes, yet the cause is cold contacting the nerves in the soft palate. There is no tissue damage in the brain, the eyes, or even the soft palate, and yet, the pain can be quite severe.
Yet, the pain has succeeded in doing what pain is designed to do…to act as a warning to get us to stop doing what we are doing because there is a perceived danger of tissue damage or because there has been the perception of tissue damage. Most people stop consuming the cold thing, if even for a few moments when they get a brain freeze .

Similarly, there can be extensive tissue damage and little or no pain. Most of us have had the experience of intently doing something, only to find that we are bleeding from somewhere. We soon discover that we have cut our hand or bumped something to make it bleed. The same thing happens when we discover an ugly bruise on our body and have no idea how it got there. You would expect to have had pain when you injured tissue like that, but it doesn’t hurt right then.

Thus, pain following a trauma can be put into perspective in consideration of those things. One has to check on a few things to put the experience of pain into perspective. To do that, I ask myself these things:

-Is there evidence of tissue damage?
-Is using the area dangerous, in the sense that doing so may cause tissue damage?
-Is the pain likely due to a ramped up nervous system due to stress, fear or disease?
-Does the pain change for the better if I use the area affected?
-If I use it while staying just on the edge of pain, does it become less reactive to use?
-Is the pain likely due, at least in part, to a diseased nervous system (MS, neuropathy)?

If the answer to the first two questions is no, and the rest is yes, I go ahead and use it while staying on the edge of pain (It hurts, but is not unbearable). If the pain gets worse for more than 20 minutes right after using it, I know that I’ve pushed too hard and then I use it for less time or less intensely the next time.

If it hurts more later that day or even days later, I know that the problem is with something going on in the whole body and/or the nervous system, and is not just coming from the part that was hurting. When that happens, I put the increased pain down to one or a combination of MS, infection or an inflammatory reaction; and take more frequent breaks during use in the days ahead.
I also talk to my nervous system and brain when I am using a painful area and tell it that “I feel this pain, but it isn’t dangerous so we can relax our breathing and use the area gently; because it will make it better.

Doing this sort of evaluation and trial use of the area from the beginning decreases the need for pain medications for when I have pain, which is most of the time. When I need to, I also use Ibuprofen, Baclofen, frequent rest periods, Epsom salt baths, yoga, stretching, awareness of breathing (breathing fully in a relaxed way and not holding my breath), and meditation to help deal with intense pain, so that I can use the areas that are reactive or clearly evidencing tissue damage, disease or dysfunction (inflammation, infection, injury or spasm).

In short, in my experience, moving rather than remaining still seems to be the ticket to reducing pain as well as dysfunction. That one thing is what has had a lasting result for me, as opposed to medication or any of the other tactics used by themselves, without movement. So I use those things so that I can move easier and so that I can use the areas that are most affected by pain at any given time.

I have also found it helpful to do something that I enjoy doing to get the movement that this body needs. So I garden, go for walks, work when I can, do yoga, meet with friends, converse on line (to use the fingers and hands that have been problematic lately), etc.
Doing things that I don’t enjoy doing, like cleaning the house, doing laundry or paper work etc. seems to make my pain worse. That just goes to show that there is an emotional connection to my experience of pain.

I fully accept that connection and work with it, and even do things like house work just to annoy the aspect of my personality that would rather sit back and wait for the pain to go away, which I know it won’t on its own. In fact, I have found that waiting until I am relatively free of pain, is a sure fire way to have the pain become more reactive to any sort of use or movement in the future.

It is like there is a thresh-hold that moves in accordance to frequency of use and movement. No movement, has that thresh-hold slide to a more reactive point that causes more intense pain sooner. On the other hand, more use and movement, usually slides that thresh-hold as time passes, to a less reactive point in relation to stimulation through use and movement.

Hope that this helps.

If you know of a way that I could convince this personality of mine that house work, doing laundry & paperwork is enjoyable, please let me know.

With love, Erika