What is 'Chronic Pain'?
I've avoided using the label "chronic pain" because my pain is not really a symptom of my disease. I'm slowly starting to realize I deal with almost constant pain, at least when walking...sometimes when sleeping or sitting, but it's not because of MS directly. My right knee is injured (sports injury) which cause me to limp a little and walk a little off, which hurts my hips and sometimes my lower back. My left leg drags bad (which is MS related), which really causes a limp on the other side which again affects all my joints in my lower body.
So...walking is consistently painful for me but it's not like my MS is really causing the pain, MS is just helping to aggravate issues which DO cause pain
Does this seem familiar? Is this what "chronic pain" really is? Or is that something else?
I almost feel guilty about this because I know there are people who do experience pain as a symptom of MS. I feel somewhat guilty bringing the issue up
For me, the pain usually lives in my muscles, almost like I always have the flu. Cold seems to exacerbate it for me, and it's like all of the muscles in my neck and shoulders lock up. And then the MS hug is like a weird spasming in your torso -- for me usually on one side between my ribs. But I think chronic pain can also be what you're describing, like collateral damage from other MS stuff.