Lynn Cooper

Every day, I live with persistent pain that resulted from an office accident in 1986. Like everyone who lives with this type of pain, I have good days, bad days and a few horrible days. When I look back over the last 22 years, I have compassion for that frightened young woman who couldn’t understand why the back injury she worked so hard to overcome turned into unrelenting and seemingly insurmountable pain.  I can see her struggling to keep her new career in tack but not being able to function at work on no sleep, in so much pain with inadequate pain management.  I feel her being overwhelmed by the loss of financial security, when relationships with family, friends, and colleagues crumbled because they couldn’t understand the problem, and by the blows to self esteem from insurance companies.  I hear her crying in despair from lack of help from the health professions, from the unbearable isolation, the loss of her life as she knew it and had planned it, from everything… that took her to the brink.

What have the years brought?  First, a choice to keep going, a time of grieving, then a journey of self preservation and self discovery…  I researched and learned about pain, approached health professionals as consultants in my quest for more effective pain management, and relied on solid friends and family for support.  I developed my “bag of tricks” or coping strategies that most often work but sometimes fail.  I came to the realization that “living well” in spite of the pain requires a shift in attitude and an adaptive lifestyle that acknowledge the pain but are not ruled by the pain.  I created a new life for myself that includes a wonderful teenage daughter, relaxing at the piano and marveling at nature through the camera lens.  I have volunteered for 20 years to promote positive changes in the way pain is managed and the manner in which people who live with pain are treated.  I live each day… well.

<< Back