Mope, Cope, Hope: The Three Stages of Chronic Pain

I follow a familiar pattern when dealing with enduring hurt

I thought I had screwed up my just-replaced knee.

After the operation, I spent nearly three weeks in a rehab facility in Farragut, Tennessee. A couple of days before my release, the pain and noise started. My new left knee felt like it had a “fuzzy” ache (I can’t think of a better way to describe it), and it made a grinding sound when I moved it.

I panicked.

Most of my time in rehab I spent alone in my room, with breaks for physical and occupational therapy sessions and meals. I passed most of my time watching TV and fretting. I worried about how the operation went and whether I’d recover well, but mostly about how my life would be as I contended with chronic pain, defined as pain that persists longer than normal healing time.

When the post-op knee pain started, it’s hard to explain the depth of despair I felt. Here, I and my insurance company had spent what I estimate to be more than $50,000 on the operation, only to have me mess it up. All the effort to prepare for the procedure, all the doctors and nurses’ time, all the hope I had for relief, might come to naught.