What happens when you mention the pain to the medical staff? Are you out patient or in?
It’s small comfort to know the pain decreases. I remember a surgery of mine and the pain was… Unrelenting and deep. They gave me effective meds, eventually, though. I mean, what they gave me worried my wife because it was - or could have been - addictive.
Lucked out that didn’t happen. But the point is, meds exist that help, I’d think.
I haven’t seen it mentioned in the sections I’ve scrolled.
First, there’s some great advice already out there. What I’ll add: breathing exercises, especially box breathing. That, with meditation, has helped me. That can be Headapace, Calm, YouTube, and more. I’ve found the voice and timbre of the speaker matters to me and changes how well it works.
My wife likes some people, I like others. And that’s okay.
The breathing and meditation never immediately helped until I’d learned how to transition to a more “present” frame of mind, but they helped me build the pathway/shortcut.