LIVING SUCCESSFULLY WITH CHRONIC PAIN has been a work in progress for several years. I began the book when I couldn’t find any real information on how to live each day in the presence of chronic pain, or how to make real lifestyle changes that would ease my pain. There was lots of material on various treatments but nothing on how to live well with pain each day.

What you will find in this book is what I learned about coping with chronic pain that I hadn’t found anywhere else. This book offers people with chronic pain ways to feel better about their pain and how they deal with it. That a life lived with chronic pain is not simply one about pain, but about living each day as a celebration of life.

Living Successfully with Chronic Pain will be out in early December 2011, and available in both paperback and ebook under my name, Ruth Stella MacLean.

If you live with Chronic Pain, or know someone who does, this book would be the perfect Christmas gift. A book they will treasure as they cope with living with chronic pain.

Dr. Mary Lynch from the Pain Management Unit in Halifax N.S. had this to say about my book:

To live with chronic pain takes a tremendous amount of positive energy and concentration and the strategies needed do not come naturally. Coping with pain is a skill that must be learned and this volume is penned by a pro. Ruth MacLean continues to live with pain and has experienced the devastation of an incurable pain diagnosis first hand. She has risen from the ashes and is now living well with pain. Through this lens and informed by her previous experience as nurse and hospital administrator Ruth has written a guidebook for others faced with this challenge.

It is hard to believe that we can identify the code in the human genome and explore the inner reaches of outer space and yet we cannot cure pain. This is in spite of the fact that we now know more about the causes of pain then ever before. The latest figures tell us that approximately 1 in 4 people suffer with persistent pain and that the rate is going up as we get better at keeping people alive for longer after injuries, operations and illnesses.

Over the past 20 years I have had the privilege of working with thousands of people who live with chronic pain and through this work I have come to appreciate the power and resilience of the human spirit. No one can do it alone. It takes determination, support and strategies. This book contains the building blocks necessary to climb back up after being knocked down by pain. Within these pages one finds a very wise and compassionate friend. This book is essential reading for anyone who suffers from or cares about someone suffering with chronic pain.