"Fortunately", the pain from my neck injury was so severe that it was taken seriously from the start.
I first incurred a serious back injury at work in 1985. It was not able to be evidence-based for five years (at the time of surgery).
Before my accident, about six years ago, I worked at a prestige car dealership in Brisbane. This work was physically demanding as well as being quite social. We all had to get on well as it could be quite a pressured environment and humour often kept us going.
September 23, 2006 was a beautiful, still, sunny autumn day.I was in the UK to visit my elderly mother and other family members and had taken the train to London to visit a friend.
In 1962 at the age of 21, Renée was involved in a serious car accident that kept her in an English hospital - in a 40-bed geriatric ward - for nearly two years.
It was during a long jump attempt at my school's athletics try-outs when I was nine that I first hurt myself.As usual, I ran and jumped but as I hit the sand I felt pain in what I thought was my ankle.
As a chronic migraine sufferer I've lived with pain since I was a small child. With the help of sub-occipital electrodes and an implanted pulse generator (IPG implant) I can now manage my daily pain and rely less on heavy medications.
I'd survived the traumas of a major motor car accident, the ignominity of a prostatectomy, and the despair and exasperation of three separate cancers and their harsh therapies, but nothing had prepared me for the greatest challenge of my life, dealing with chronic pain
My problems started in the early 1980s with the introduction of computers in most public service departments.In 1986,
Harry Perkins, son of Olympic champion swimmer and Painaustralia Director Kieren Perkins OAM, was diagnosed with chronic migraine at the tender age of eleven.
Breast cancer is a diagnosis heard all too often these days at 13,000 diagnoses a year in Australia.
I was nine years old when I damaged the ligaments in my left leg in a hurdling accident.After a year of treatment my leg hadn't healed – in fact the pain had worsened and I was diagnosed with chronic regional pain syndrome. 
My injury happened over two days – August 30-31, 2001 – when I was asked to reorganise the office's new filing system.
I injured my neck in 1993 while attending a Scout Jamboree in Canada as a carer for a child with cerebral palsy.My pain symptoms didn't really show up until 1997 when I started getting lots of neck and arm pain. 
That Friday in June 1990 began like any other Friday – two adults, three teenagers, family pets, all heading out. I was totally unaware that this was the day "Super Mum" would die and life as I knew it would be over.
My first taste of pain and injury was when I was only three years old.We had a car accident and I had my lower lumbar joints damaged as well as whiplash injuries to my neck. No one knew this at the time, though, and by the time I was nine I was having X-rays on my back to find out why I was in so much pain.
I was an advisory teacher when I suffered a spinal injury in 2007 that landed me in a Brisbane hospital emergency department.Thanks to a neurosurgeon, I regained the use of my left leg and the crushing pain eased. 
It happened on 28 August 2008 at 8.28am. Everything after that is a bit of a blur, but the moment the accident happened will be stuck in my memory forever.
6 when I was 17. Unrelated to any incident, I began to experience extreme back pain. I later discovered it was a degenerative disease with no cure, but at the time I thought it could just be 'fixed'.
I woke up one morning in 1988 with a sore back.As the pain continued to increase, I consulted my general practitioner who referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. After some tests, I was told that there were no problems and that the pain should go away. It didn't.
I had two major cycling accidents in the 1980s which caused a spinal fracture and severe whiplash.I quickly got over the accidents and was fine until the early 1990s when I started to have migraines. This gradually progressed to daily migraines by 1996.
Eliza*: The right diagnosis changed my life
Prior to becoming a chronic pain sufferer, that is, someone who experiences daily pain for three months or more, I had led a busy life. Post pain, it has been devastating to have to adjust to a vastly different life.
The onset of excruciating back and pelvic pain occurred suddenly in 2005, its causes having various doctors baffled.
In the early stages of being in pain, large doses of various over-the-counter pain medications and the prescription drug Panadeine Forte did not help much, and Endep (an anti depressant) did not help with sleep but seemed to increase my agitation.
A GP prescribed Digesic, so, with 12 or more of them daily (later reduced) and a small dose of the anti depressant, Avanza, I was able to sleep at night.
I do recall that one day a specialist who'd noted this dose, said something like: "Hell! It's a wonder you're still standing!" It certainly was a lot for me because, prior to the pain, I rarely used any pain medication.
I was also prescribed antibiotics on the basis that I might have osteitis pubis (inflammation of the pelvic area), as well as Naprosyn, Colafac, Buscopan and Tramadol.
For well over two years, I had many bad days, propped up by Digesic and/or antibiotics, feeling desperate as I visited numerous medical facilities.
After consultations with GPs, gastroenterologists, gynaecologists, consulting surgeons, an infections specialist, a sports medicine doctor as well as complementary and allied-health practitioners, and having myriad blood tests, three laparoscopies, two colonoscopies, a gastroscopy, a cystoscopy, a bone scan, six pelvic and/or abdominal ultrasounds, four CT scans, five MRIs, four x-rays and a gallium scan, doctors could not identify anything sinister.
I felt frustrated at getting no real answers. It was as though I 'lost' several years of my life immersed in pain, when preparing a meal was the most I could do, and books were my escape.
By late 2007, constant pain was making my life grim. Then, based on 'advice' from one of my sons who had been searching the internet, in December 2007 I had an initial consultation with an innovative gynaecologist from Sydney's Prince of Wales (POW) Hospital who works with a multi-disciplinary team, comprised of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
My condition was diagnosed as pudendal neuralgia (a painful neuropathic condition caused by inflammation of the pudendal nerve).
Finally, I had a diagnosis and some treatment options, the most effective being the medication, Lyrica; a surgical 'release' of the pudendal nerve; and trigger point injections.
Since that time, medical treatment, advice and support from the team at POW have helped me enormously in managing my condition and not being as 'fearful' of pain as I had been.
As well, I have been able to undertake some work and feel more 'normal' again, and am grateful to have regained some quality of life.