Harry Perkins, son of Olympic champion swimmer and Painaustralia Director Kieren Perkins OAM, was diagnosed with chronic migraine at the tender age of eleven.
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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
My injury happened over two days – August 30-31, 2001 – when I was asked to reorganise the office's new filing system.
My problems started in the early 1980s with the introduction of computers in most public service departments.In 1986,
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. 
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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'.
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.
Breast cancer is a diagnosis heard all too often these days at 13,000 diagnoses a year in Australia.
"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).
What is Pain?
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"Chronic pain has a distinct pathology, causing changes throughout the nervous system that often worsen over time. It has significant psychological and cognitive correlates and can constitute a serious, separate disease entity." - Relieving Pain in America, Report by US Institute of Medicine, 2011 |
The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage."
All pain is an individual human experience that is entirely subjective and can only be truly appreciated by the person experiencing the pain.
Acute Pain: When pain is brief or short term (acute pain), it acts as a warning for the body to seek help. Acute pain occurs most commonly following injury or surgery and most patients can be helped with appropriate treatment. Effective timely treatment is essential to prevent transition to chronic pain.[i]
Chronic pain: Chronic pain is severe pain that occurs day after day, night after night for more then three months, and often continues long after the healing from an injury or surgery, or other condition that has been treated.
Some forms of chronic pain, for example pain associated with severe osteoarthritis, may be treated with therapy which may include medication or surgery; however other types of chronic pain, such as neuropathic pain or migraine, may be far more difficult to diagnose and treat.
When pain does not go away with treatment, becomes severe, and persists for several months, it can cause severe physical, psychological and environmental changes that result in the pain becoming a disease in its own right.
A large body of basic research indicates that chronic pain is associated with neuroplastic changes in the nervous system at peripheral, spinal cord and brain levels. Thus chronic pain is shown to have a distinct pathology that often worsens over time, and constitutes a serious separate disease entity.[ii]
Left untreated, chronic pain can have a devastating impact on all aspects of sufferers' lives. About 65 percent of people with chronic pain report interference with daily activities including sleep, sex, work, exercise and routine self-care, which can have a negative effect on personal relationships, social interactions and lifestyle.
Cancer Pain: Pain is one of the most feared aspects of cancer, It can occur in patients with both early stage and advanced disease, and in cancer survivors as a severe and debilitating side-effect of treatment.
[i] Macintyre PE, Schug SA, Scott DA, Visser EJ, Walker SM; APM:SE Working Group of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and Faculty of Pain Medicine (2010), Acute Pain Management: Scientific Evidence. Third edition. Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and Faculty of Pain Medicine, Melbourne.
[ii] Siddall PJ and Cousins MJ, 2004. Persistent pain as a disease entity: Implications for clinical management. Anesth Analg 99:510-520.
Chronic Pain in Children and Adolescents
Although the greatest incidence of chronic pain occurs in the 50-54 age bracket for women and the 55-59 age bracket for men, it also occurs in children and adolescents.
Children and adolescents can experience chronic pain through a wide range of medical conditions such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, scoliosis, cancer, migraine and chronic abdominal pain, or as a result of spinal cord injuries.
Untreated chronic pain in children is likely to manifest in low school attendance, poorer grades, and cessation of sporting or other activities.
For some, the eventual result is social isolation and depression, and these children tend to become adults who are not able to achieve their potential.
Therefore, parents and carers should seek medical advice if children or adolescents under their care are complaining of pain on a regular basis.
Understanding Pain: What to do about it in less than five minutes?
