libby has lived almost half her life with pain. a serious problem with her thyroid developed when she was agedjustii, leading to chronic pain that profoundly affected every aspect of her childhood and her teenage yea rs. now she is studying at university but that's only possible because of a combination of medication and other therapies. you have to find a way of balancing the benefits of the medication, side—effects it creates, the risks that it creates and also quality of life. so at the minute, with the medication i'm on, the side—effects are minimal to none, or if i do have them, they kind of blend in with the other symptoms i have because of my chronic fatigue. the risks aren't particularly high and it's majorly improved my quality of life because if i didn't have the medications that i'm on, i wouldn't be able to function.