Name of condition:
Chronic pain
Experience:
When it first kicked off I actually thought my appendix had just exploded. After a lot of investigation, it turns out that there's no particular reason for it.
Personal advice:
You have to learn to deal with being in pain a lot of the time.
Pain can play havoc with your sleep - read up on things like sleep hygiene and find what works for you, a few hours of good sleep is better than a full eight of bad sleep.
Exercise is always good, I do yoga which is also relaxing. Because my pain is mostly in my abdomen I find I hunch over and things to get more comfortable, which means I'm very prone to having a bad back, and yoga also helps with that.
Don't forget to eat. When you're in a lot of pain eating is really not something that you want to do, but you should. Keeping your energy levels up is going to help your mood. Strong opiates (painkillers) can cause hypoglycemia - it's rare for it to be a problem but if you go for days eating nothing but pills you might fall afoul of that.
Make sure you have a reasonable stock of any medications you're given. If things suddenly worsen (mine varies in intensity enormously), the last thing you'll want to do is be panicking about picking up that repeat prescription you've been putting off.
Have a variety of different things which you can be doing, like hobbies and things. You don't want to be sat there bored and idle when you're not up for much physical activity.