Jordan's story
Hi. My name's Jordan Woodward. I am 17 years old. I study full-time and I have a part-time job and I've had chronic pain for around nine years.
It normally stays in my kidney and in my bladder, because that's where it is for me, but it can make me feel quite tired and sore, like achy.
With trying to prevent my chronic pain, I do do some exercise to try to make my body a little bit stronger, so when the pain does come along, it's not as hard of an impact. And, I work on my mental health because that all affects the pain. And if I feel a little bit sore, like starting to have a flare up, then I will take it easy and kind of slow down a little bit, just so it doesn't get worse.
When my pain flares up, I do breathing, like trying to slow down my breathing and focus on that instead of the pain and then I use a heat pack and panadol and nurofen and I have medication for anxiety and my chronic pain. And then, I'll just try to rest more without stopping doing things, because then next time my pain flares up it will be worse.
Once I get my pain under control, then I feel kind of proud of myself and kind of relieved at the same time, because I don't have to deal with it. But, then it's kind of... I have like a little bit more courage for next time, so I can kind of just say, well, it wasn't that bad last time and I got it under control, so I can do it this time.
With the relief, it's kind of like, phew, it's over... but then at the same time it's like, oh, it's going to happen again, so I've got to kind of prepare for that.
The most important thing I do to manage my pain is probably understanding how I'm feeling and what I think I'm able to do that day. And, if I think I do need to do my breathing work before I get out of bed to get me ready for the day and taking more medication and just really understanding what I need is the most important thing.
I feel like it's pretty easy for me to get my pain under control because I've done a lot of work with the chronic pain team, so I do my breathing and I have my medication and I've done all the psychology work behind it and I understand how the pain works and why it's there.
If you're looking for information about chronic pain, go to your doctor and try to learn a little bit more about chronic pain, so you can understand why it's happening to you.