BackCare

How can you do your daily activities without increasing your pain?

01 Jun 2007

Many people with back pain tend to have these traits. So how can you reduce these good-day and bad-day over achieving traits?

Pete Moore explains First you need to ask yourself these two questions. Do you do more on good days and less on bad ones? Are you an over achiever – you do more than you have to? Many people with back pain tend to have these traits. So how can you reduce these good-day and bad-day over achieving traits? A familiar scene most people with pain can relate to. Over doing it on one day and having to pay the price the next. Pacing is the key! Pacing is about spacing out your activities throughout the day to avoid making your pain worse. Many people with persistent back pain push or force themselves to get something accomplished in the short-term. Pacing is the opposite of this. There is that old proverb – “How do you eat an elephant?’” Answer “One bite at a time.” Pacing is simply performing tasks/activities in a manageable way – not doing them all at once. It is also learning to move about before your back pain discourages you from moving. Equally, it is also useful to know when to stop before your back pain may begin. In short, pacing is ‘taking a break before you need it.’ Here are some typical everyday tasks/activities that need to be broken up and paced. You may want to add some others of your own to this list. walking sitting standing vacuuming gardening cooking work working at the computer cleaning reading All these and other activities you can think of need to be broken down into manageable sized segments. The three step approach to pacing Firstly: You need to become aware of what you are doing. Ideally you need to stop and think before you launch into an activity that soon becomes an over-activity. Secondly: Start thinking about why and how you need to do it. Many people with back pain feel pressured from work or their family. But in most cases it is the people themselves who allow themselves to feel pressured, because they want to keep up with others. Thirdly: You need to start to develop a new approach for the task/activity. You need to discard the old 'all or nothing' attitude (‘I've got to get this done – now just in case my back pain increases and prevents me from doing so and have to stop and rest’) and opt for a new approach based on the following principles: The Three Ps to PACING SUCCESSFULLY and keeping you in control are: Prioritising = prioritise what needs to be done Planning = plan what you want to do and how to do it before you begin Pacing = gradually does it – you don’t have to do it all at once – take a break before you need it Prioritising: I think the word speaks for itself. Make a list of what you think needs to be done and stick to it. Planning: Let us look at planning an activity eg you want to do some gardening. Plan what and how much of the garden you want to do (break your garden up into manageable sections) and don’t deviate from your plan – if you feel no pain after you have finished your section of the garden – STILL STOP – TAKE A BREAK! Handy tip: you could use an audible egg timer to remind you to stop. Gradually or easy does it There may be a tendency to over achieve and do more. However, by breaking the garden up into sections – doing one section and then taking a break, the over achieving won’t happen. Take your time, and learn that gardening doesn’t equal pain or experiencing a flare up, but equals pleasure and satisfaction. Here are some other examples. Ironing As an alternative of trying to do a large amount in one go, do smaller amounts frequently. Instead of doing the whole washing load of ironing all at once, do some of it over a period of days. Eg have two or three piles. an urgent pile a not so urgent pile, and an “I can do that at the end of the week’ pile Shopping Instead of doing one large weekly shop cut it down to a few trips to the shop per week and divide your shopping into more bags, so that you are not lifting and carrying such heavy bags. Or consider Internet shopping, and then you just have to pack the items away once they have been delivered to your home. These are just some simple examples. But they may be every day activities that you need to think through before you tackle them. If you stop and think about what you intend to do BEFORE you do it, then there is a less chance you will have a flare up and in turn increase your pain. Remember – this is called PACING Decorating For both men and women decorating could be very challenging but also very rewarding as it maybe an activity you have put off through fear of increasing your pain. As always, break up the decorating tasks into manageable sections. For example, if you have to strip the walls then strip one or half a wall and take a break. Strip another and then take a break. Even if you have stripped one or two of the walls and your pain has not increased, STILL TAKE A BREAK. By doing it this way, you will have found you have stripped the whole room and your pain has not increased. You could use the same method when painting the ceiling, painting or papering walls and of course painting the woodwork. Why not ask for help – it could be more fun with two people. Pacing: Pacing is not doing something ‘all at once’. Pacing is ‘taking a break before you need it’. To summarise, pacing is… prioritising planning your activities needs to be regular and incorporated into your everyday living including work increasing your activity levels gradually Remember pacing is ‘taking a break before you need it’, which will make you a better self-manager in managing your back pain. Dealing with back pain flare ups The information within this article was tken from the Persistent Pain Programme handbook and property of the Expert Patients Programme Community Interest Company. No text can be reproduced or copied without the permission o9f the EPP CIC. If you would like to attend an EPP, clease see the list of courses at www.expertpatients.co.uk Illustrations courtesy of Grunenthal GmbH Global Marketing – Pain Education.