Is this considered chronic pain?

I have pain that is randomly all over my body, sometimes my foot will hurt, then my shoulder or something else. I am never pain free... And as I am typing this my foot and elbow are aching... But that will stop, but I'll get more pain somewhere else. What is this? Is it considered chronic pain? Should I talk to my mom about it? I'm 15 and this has been going on for over a year now.

Oh and sometimes the pain will be dull and achy, or it can be really sharp and unbearable to apply pressure too.

My mom doesn't know that I have pain like this.. So idk how to bring it up too.

Hi Rra, I'm sorry that your having pain that brings you to this forum. At 15 years old, that just seems so young to be having such a hard time. To answer your question, I think "chronic pain" refers more to a timeline, than a specific diagnosis, but most would say that it's pain that lingers, unlike accute pain which is the, hopefully, short term pain caused from an injury or illness like a broken bone, or something like that. But when it keeps coming back, and keeps coming back, that could be chronic pain.

I think it's very important that you have a talk with your mom about this, I don't know what your mom is like or how receptive she is to taking these kinds of things seriously, but if it has been persistant for that long, you definately need to be getting checked out by a doctor. It could be something as simple as "growing pains" not sure what those are lol, but they say every teenager all the way up to 25 years old can get them; or it could be from a more serious underlying condition that has yet to be diagnosed and treated.

Please don't make the mistake of blowing it off, there are many serious conditions that if left undiagnosed and untreated, can lead to permanent problems for the rest of your life. Remember, pain is always just a symptom with any condition, even if the condition has the term pain in it, there's still some underlying root cause of it.

I think the best thing you can do is have one of those "sit-down" chats with your mom about it, be honest, and as open as you can about it. Give her as much detail as you can, not only is that important for her to see that you need medical attention, but also, she needs to be there with you, when you do see the doctor, since our parents have that ability to remember things that we told them, that when we're staring the doctor face to face, tend to slip our minds, or at least they always tend to slip my mind.

I hope you're able to find some answers and that whatever the culprit, it's not too serious. Keep us updated on what happens with the doctors, I'd like to hear back from you to see that everything is alright. And if you ever need a place to come and talk about it, you found the best group of people to talk to, no one in here is judgemental, and to illness and pain, we all understand that age is just a number, there are no favorite age groups for it in that aspect. Take care, and let us know how it turns out.

Hi Rra,
Please talk to your mom as soon as possible. There are all kinds of things that could be causing these pains. I am a nurse in a pediatricians office. Yes it could be growing pains. You didn't state if you are an active person, doing athletics or such. If so it could be overuse injuries. Also mono can last months to years and can cause pains. Unfortunately with mono you just treat the symptoms as there is no treatment. I could go on, but I think you can see that there are numerous things it could be. Diagnosis could be made with some simple labs. please talk to your mom and go see your doctor. you shouldn't be dealing with this alone. Will keep you in my prayers.
Leslie

Well I do run cross country, but 5 months ago I had an injury that left me out for 4 months. I had stress fractures that were really bad and when I would be done running I could barely walk it hurt so much, which I should have stopped or cut my mileage a little bit when it started to hurt. But that pain went away in 3 1\2 months, and when the pain was gone from the stress fractures my legs still got random pains. Also when I run sometimes I get a really bad pinching pain in my shoulder... I have to stop running and not move my arm it hurts so bad, and sometimes when I walk my feet get a really sharp pain in them (happened when I wasn't running too).

And talking to my mom about it would be really weird to me. I even have a hard time asking for something to get rid of a headache. And when I had stress fractures I had them for 5 or 6 months before I told my mom, which for me was hard to do...

I've been to the Dr. three times over the summer so I could see the progress of the stress fractures (in both shins). Everybody lies, that's why nothing was said to the Dr. For some reason I don't think it is growing pains because when I was 12 or 13 I felt that at night and this feels completely different. I've taken 600mg of ibuprofen to see if that would help, but it really didn't do much at all.

Hi Rra, I have a daughter your age and yes growing pains can certainly give you fits but if you know what those feel like and you dont think this is the same then it is always safe to have it checked out. It could be any number of things.

It can also be very scary to have pain and not know why,our minds can run away from us and make us think its worse then it is and I am not minimizing your pain only saying that maybe your not talking to anyone about it is fear of all the bad things your thinking it could be?

If you dont want to talk to your parents about it, afraid you might worry them for nothing how about your coach or the school nurse? I assume you have either or since your a long distance runner. I also had a thought that if your still trying to keep in shape and exercising that maybe your not replacing your fluids as you should as potassium loss certainly causes pain as you describe. This is something your coach should know about,so it can be as easy as that. So please talk to one of the adults in your life and depending on where you live you can also call your local health dept. If you have had your Doc for along time you can probably talk to his nurse as well and she may be able to help with an appointment for you and talking to your Mom.

Like it was already said here none of us are Docs just alot of folks here that have lived with pain for a long time and care about others pain.

Good luck to you and please talk to someone soon and put your mind at ease as the more we worry and stress the more intense our pain is.