This article was an entry in our recent contest and was written by Sherrin, who writes at the website The Drew Patch.

Many words come to mind when I think of chronic pain:  frustration and fulfilment, limitation and expansion, anger and acceptance, hopelessness and triumph, fear and peace, uncertainty and confidence, frantic desperation and grinding perseverance.  When I was 17, a doctor told me, “you have a crush fracture to L3 and will probably have chronic pain for the rest of your life.”  I had no idea what those words meant.  Like most teenagers, I took my body for granted.  I’ve spent the last decade learning what it means to live a painful, but joyful life.

The physical limitations that resulted from a car accident are real, but they don’t have to make life miserable.  As the months and years passed and it became clear that the pain was not going to go away, I gradually learnt to accept and to understand.  A number of ideas and practices have helped me.

1. Don’t “catastrophize”
Try to be realistic about what’s happening right now, but avoid assuming that everything is bad or that it always will be.

2. Trust in God and pursue a relationship with Him
As I have increasingly come to understand who God is and how He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, I’m increasingly peaceful about the plans He has for my life.

3. Focus on what you can do
It’s easy to grieve the many losses that come with an injury, and it’s right to do this.  However, it’s important to focus on the many things you can still do.  In my case this includes writing (including for my blog), gardening in raised beds, crafts, 1/2 hour walks, reading, cooking, visiting, and much more!  Last year I discovered I could have a normal labour and birth as we received the gift of our first child.

4. Pain can be managed
It may not go away, but it can be kept under control most of the time through changing the way things are done and taking appropriate medication.  I find it helpful to pace myself in activities and ensure that I have enough rest.  For example, I limit standing/walking time to an hour and then choose a sit-down activity.  Sometimes the only way to manage and reduce the pain is to rest as much as possible for a week or more.

5. Choose to respond well to what you cannot change
There are some circumstances we can’t change, but we can determine our response to those circumstances.  We can change and expand inside, even while the outer circumstances remain the same.

Thanks so much to Sherrin for sharing what she’s found helpful.  Thanks to Tigr for the photo at Flickr.  This week’s interesting edition of Grand Rounds, with a “deadly Australian animals” theme, is published at Life in the Fast Lane.