Pacing For Pain

By Jonathan Blood Smyth

Chronic pain is very common. Half of all adults suffer from either persistent (long term) or recurrent (repeated) pain of some kind. These are both chronic pain. This can vary from the severely disabling pain of cancer or arthritis to the mild pain of an old injury to a joint or ligament. Doctors can diagnose some pains and the treatments are clear. But many pains have no diagnosis and no treatment. This includes most back and neck pain, migraines, headaches and many pain problems without a diagnosis such as much abdominal pain.
Pacing is a technique of pain management which allows people to start an activity or increase the amount of an activity they can perform without suffering a significant increase in their pain.
The author has worked with a pain management team for over ten years and seen over a thousand patient suffering from chronic pain problems. Amongst many problems they have indicated is the difficulty of managing activities, doing things.
Pacing For Pain sets out a clear analysis of the problems of pain in activity and a plan for increasing ability over time and regaining control over an aspect of life which is very important.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Blood Smyth
• Release date: Dec 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9780953806515

Jonathan Blood Smyth

I'm a semi-retired physiotherapist living in Exmouth in the South-West of the UK. I am interested in pain, joint replacement and rehabilitation and write on these subjects. Otherwise I follow Formula One, play the guitar (not very well) and enjoy drinking wine.

Book preview

Pacing for Pain

Control Your Pain and Reclaim Your Life

By Jonathan Blood Smyth

Published by Dustjacket Books at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Jonathan Blood Smyth

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About the Author

JONATHAN BLOOD SMYTH B.Sc.(Hons) Zoology, Grad. Dip. Phys., MCSP, is an HCPC Registered Physiotherapist in the United Kingdom. He qualified as a physiotherapist from Leeds School of Physiotherapy in Leeds, UK, in 1982.

After working at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, he moved to the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter UK. There he specialised in the assessment and management of orthopaedic and musculoskeletal conditions.

From 1997 he specialised in the assessment and management of pain conditions. He was part of the Pain Management Therapy team at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter, UK.

From 2010-2014 he was physiotherapy consultant to a Health Care Management Company.

Publications include:

Co-author of an abstract on the costs of manipulation

Co-author of a paper on the back pain service in Exeter

Author of the booklet Total Knee Replacement. A guide to getting the best from your new knee

The Physiotherapy Site atwww.thephysiotherapysite.co.uk

His work interests include rehabilitation, joint replacement and pain management. Other interests include natural history, computing, wine and Formula One.

Visit JonathanBloodSmyth.com to contact Jonnie

Disclaimer

BECAUSE WE ARE unaware of any pre-existing health conditions you should consult with your doctor or a qualified medical practitioner before using or practising any of the methods described in this book.

The information provided in this book is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. This book is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, to diagnose or treat any medical condition. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical or musculoskeletal problem, consult your own physician and/or physiotherapist as appropriate.

The publisher and author are not responsible for any specific health needs that may require medical supervision and are not liable for any damages or negative consequences from any treatment, action, application or preparation, to any person reading or following the information in this book.

References are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute endorsement of any websites or other sources. Readers should be aware that the websites listed in this book may change.

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to Dr Mary Ivens, Jenny Chamberlain and Billie Josef for looking at the manuscript and making many helpful suggestions, most of which I have adopted. Any omissions are my own.

Title Page

About the Author

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The Pacing System- Managing Activity

Chapter 3 Introduction to Pain

Chapter 4 Activities and Pain - Doing Things

Chapter 5 The Body and Its Tissues

Chapter 6 The Boom & Bust Activity Cycle

Chapter 7 Are You Susceptible? Personality Matters

Chapter 8 How to Pace

Chapter 9 The 5 Principles of Pacing

Chapter 10 Succeed with Pacing

Chapter 11 The 6 Traps

Chapter 12 Changing Behaviour

Chapter 13 Tools To Help You Change

Chapter 14 Appendices

FAQs

Connect with Me

Resources

Preface

THIS BOOK CAME from meeting a marathon man with a problem. He told me I can’t run for more than 15 minutes before my back becomes so painful I have to stop.

That’s what the fit, somewhat unhappy 54 year old man was saying was his problem. He had been a runner since he was a young man and had competed in several marathons. He still ran twenty miles in one session at least once a week.

Well he used to.

His back pain had come on steadily about three months before and this had started to cut into his running and become a nuisance. Every time he went out running he felt fine for the first 15 minutes then BANG, his back pain came on significantly, forcing him to stop.

He’d repeated this unrewarding pattern regularly for the last month but his back pain was just as bad and his running had not improved. He was getting fed up with the restrictions and had begun to ask himself Should I give up running?.

As a physiotherapist of over 20 years experience, working with a Pain Management Team for 10 years, I looked for technical reasons for a person’s pain and did technical things to them.

Except I didn’t.

I explained the reasons for his pain and how his behaviour was maintaining the problem. I suggested he changed his running technique to take account of pacing to control his pain.

It worked. Three months later he came back to report on this progress. He had taken a month to get back to twenty mile runs but he had done it. Then he fell down a bank in a garden at a party at night! This made his back worse, but he had moved up to twenty miles again over the next four weeks.

The pacing system had worked for him twice in three months!

To be honest it wasn't just this man that started my interest in pacing, but it was his very clear story that made me think about writing something for everyone with pain problems. The principles apply to many people and in many different situations. I feel that this knowledge could be useful.

I hope you find it so.

Jonathan Blood Smyth

Exmouth August 2014

Chapter 1

Introduction

IN THIS BOOK I discuss the role of activities in pain conditions. I aim to give you a clear path to reduce your pain and increase your ability to do normal things.

Pain is an important and common problem in adults but is not well catered for in medicine. I was a physiotherapist attached to a Pain Management Team for over ten years. We saw thousands of patients with a wide variety of pain conditions.

One of the things which struck me most forcefully was the role of activities in pain problems. Activities are important because that’s much of what life consists of,