Apple Magazine - Fall 2017

ILLUSTRATED BY JULIE McLAUGHLIN PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHAEL INTERISANO

Pain is part of life—from stubbing your toe and putting out your back to undergoing surgery. But as we age and our health becomes more complex, we’re more likely to experience chronic pain. If you do, it helps to understand how you can manage it effectively.

One in three seniors in Alberta lives with chronic pain, which is pain that goes on long after someone expects to feel better and be healed.

“When pain lasts for a long time,
the ability to cope with or manage it
often breaks down,” says Christelle
Zacharki, primary care pharmacist
and lead of the Pain Management
Clinic at the Mosaic PCN. “We help
people learn about and manage
their pain using a holistic approach
that involves the emotional, social
and spiritual aspects of pain. We
give people knowledge that may
keep them in control versus their
pain being in control.”
Liz Northam has arthritis throughout
her body and was used to clenching
with pain whenever she would
move too much. “It’s kind of a
subconscious thing,” she says. “But
once you learn how the pain works,
you can manage it. If you know you
are going to get some kind of pain,
you can deal with it.”
Northam, 56, went to Mosaic PCN’s
Pain Management Clinic for a year
and learned about a number of
tools. They include simple stretches
and exercises, skills to manage
pain flare-ups and breathing and
relaxation techniques to improve
mood and sleep.

She also learned to challenge
negative thinking about pain. “You
talk to it, you envision it,” Northan
says. “There’s one technique where
you envision that you are in a
stream and the pain keeps riding
down, getting smaller and smaller,
Mosiac PCN’s Pain Management
Clinic team includes a physician,
pharmacist, nurses, mental health
therapists and a social worker,
kinesiologist and physiotherapist.
The team complements the care of
its patients’ primary care physicians.

“Managing chronic pain requires lifestyle changes and approaches to improve a person’s quality of life,” says Zacharki.

Working with the team has improved Northam’s quality of life. “The beauty of the pain management clinic is everything is in one place,” she says. “You get to know the staff and they all work together for you so that you can make your goals.”