When I was getting my pain like heaps during the day I stopped sports.
Even weekend sports.
So um… netball is like my favourite sport.
Ah I love playing it but it was really hard.
Well I know I did sign up to a gym and I would try going to the gym.
I mean some stuff hurts my hips to do and um… and um… 'cause I do… I just wanna get healthy and I wanna get fit again.
At night, when I was only able to get up to three hours of sleep a night, so that meant that I became more fatigued during the day.
And of course during the day that meant that I wanted to go back to bed but when I tried to go back to sleep and I couldn't.
So it was kind of just going around in circles.
It wasn't getting anywhere and the result of that, I guess was that as the year went on I found it harder to keep active.
So I ended up just kind of sitting down on the couch more or doing less, and that was the main daily lifestyle change of my pain - that I became a lot less active.
So if you have chronic pain it's often the case that you try to avoid exercise and activities because of the pain that they may cause.
However in the long run this causes more problems because you lose muscle and you become weak and what we call 'de-conditioned' and then when you try to do further exercise you're able to do less and less without encountering more pain.
And this is a downward spiral which leaves you weaker and 'de-conditioned' even more.
Um… I like swimming, playing cricket, playing touch footy a little and I love horse riding.
When I ride a horse it distracts me from the pain and it doesn't hurt.
And it's good for my posture, keeping my joints moving, all my muscles and also it's really fun.
So physical activity is a really vital part of the chronic pain management process and the reason is, because it provides so many benefits when done regularly.
One of them is that the brain releases chemicals that help pain management, they're called 'endorphins'.
It also releases other chemicals that help mood and also help manage stress.
Another benefit from physical exercise is that it prevents or helps constipation.
And you know what a pain in the bum that can be.
And physical activity provides a life long benefit.
I know you can't imagine being old right now, but regular physical exercise prevents dramatic diseases in old age people such as heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.
And it's good to start now in order to prevent these diseases from happening.
And finally, physical exercise can, or should be fun.
It can be that.
And it's especially that if you choose what you want to do.
And that's why it's so important for you to find something that you enjoy doing.
I think the thing about physical activity especially is that it's a great way just to release any tensions that you might have.
Going for a run, playing a game of footy with friends.
And it's also great just for yourself just keeping good mental attitude.
Ah just weekend sport, any sport, it's good.
You get to see your friends so you socialise.
You also need the exercise.
You've been, you know sitting around for months and you need to try and get back into the swing of things.
With my injury, I guess I just wanted to be able to get back into the sport area at school which I was loving.
And just get back in with my friends.
Where they were all running around and kind of get back through with that.
