![]() "The difference with chronic pain is that it actually worsens over time," she says. Thernstrom says that ordinary pain, such as the kind that results from an injury, will eventually fade. The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering She talked to doctors and scientists in pain clinics across the country, and learned that chronic pain was not a temporary condition but an actual disease that requires daily management. It was not until Thernstrom, a journalist, was assigned to write an article about chronic pain that she began to understand she would never find a cure. "I would think, well, you're not the doctor for me," she says, "because I'm not interested in managing my pain, I'm interested in having my pain cured." ![]() Thernstrom sought relief from multiple doctors but was frustrated to find they preferred to focus on pain management rather than a cure for her condition. The pain quickly spread to her shoulder and eventually her hand. Thernstrom's own journey with chronic pain began years ago when she developed persistent pain in her neck after swimming. ![]() ![]() It's a disease, she says, and more than 70 million Americans live with it each day. But chronic pain, author Melanie Thernstrom tells NPR's Neal Conan, is different. Most people think they understand pain: An injury hurts, but it eventually heals and the pain fades away. Many Americans suffer from persistent neck and shoulder pain. ![]()
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