bbc research reveals affects the lives of millions and leave them living lives of pain. hello, i mjennifer and i am a dental therapist for my dentist in saltaire in bradford. it was everything that i ever wanted. it was everything that i dreamed it would be. i don t think i have been in a happier place in my life. five years ago, jen was happy and successful. today, she is living a life dominated by pain. opioid patches, anti inflammatories, nerve pain medications. it started with back pain, but eventually spread through her body. mid december, i drove to work, and whilst i was driving, the pain through my back and right leg wasjust something i had neverfelt. it was how i would imagine being kicked in the back by a horse would be.
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.
pain, is different and very complex means you actually have the ability to change it yourself. i m dominic hughes and i m a health correspondet for bbc news. and i have been investigating the story of chronic pain, a condition that bbc research reveals blights the lives of millions of people and leaves them living a life of pain. hello, i mjennifer and i am a dental therapist for my dentist in saltaire in bradford. it was everything that i ever wanted. that i dreamed it would be. i don t think i have been in a happier place in my life. five years ago, jen was happy and successful. today, she is living a life dominated by pain. opioid patches, anti inflammatories, nerve pain medications.
but the other things that people with chronic pain can benefit from physical activity programmes, programmes to help people with their mental health, community support, peersupport all these sorts of things aren t so readily available, and even when they are available, they are not well connected in with health services. and actually, we need a whole social change, so we need a change in society where we think these are the normal things that we should be providing, where those of us who go to our gp with a problem connected with chronic pain, that actually we aren t surprised when somebody wants to talk to us about something other than medicines. people tell me i look well when they see me, when i m wearing makeup and my pain level is a level four. but they don t see me when i m flaring, when i m in agony, crying because i can barely move and my medication isn t helping. i had to change my personality and become more selfish - so i can manage my time, energyand pain. - it s exhaus
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. we asked libby to keep a record of an average day to see the impact her condition has on her everyday life. i have just woken up from a really bad night of pain. it was like a combined nerve pain and muscle contractions. i m used to it, so i m just going to go about my day. walking around from place to place is taking a lot of pain, especially in my joints, but it s kind of flaring up the nerve pain from last night. i got a teddy because i m a child. i am still in a lot of pain, but at least i am in pain