What was the outcome for Mrs AP?

Mrs AP lives with chronic pain due to her hand OA. She is using both non pharmacological and pharmacological treatments to manage her pain. 

During her GP consultations, after treating her pain with medications, she was referred to a CBT therapist where she identified her unhelpful thoughts and fear and catastrophizing beliefs. Such as the ones about using medications, which led her to stopping them or using them incorrectly. 

She replaced her catastrophizing thoughts with alternative ones, practical self-help strategies to manage her daily life, daily activities and improve her quality of sleep. All these had a positive impact on her pain level and management of her disease. 

Her quality of life was restored, she had to make adjustments. Her GP explained thoroughly what hand OA is, how it works (because it is a wear and tear disease) so she now knows how to respect her new realities. She will have her regular follow ups with her GP and rheumatologist but she has accepted what is happening and she feels in control.