New campaign hopes to tackle chronic pain through communication

A new campaign hopes to  tackle chronic pain as more than half of sufferers find it difficult to

I was desperate, I’d have tried anything. I came home from the spinning class and couldn’t get out of bed for two days

“It feels like somebody has got their two fists balled up and they’re kneading into my back and hip. When it’s very bad, it’s like somebody’s sticking hot needles into me.” Niamh Nestor, student advisor at UCD’s School of Veterinary Medicine, has no problem describing the constant lower back pain she has suffered since 2011. But new research shows over half of people living with chronic pain in Ireland find it difficult to describe their symptoms — so 26% delay discussing their pain with their doctor. Recently launched, the mypainfeelslike campaign has a website (www.mypainfeelslike.ie), a questionnaire — a tool to enable communication between patients and their doctors — and a series of images that visually interpret pain symptoms such as burning, stabbing and crawling under the skin. These images are on display around Dublin and in GP surgeries countrywide.