For millions of Americans who have some form of arthritis or a related disease, pain is chronic, or long-lasting. Technically, pain is considered chronic when it lasts three to six months or longer, but arthritis pain can last a lifetime. It may be consistent, or it can come and go. Repetitive motion, such as typing at a keyboard for hours or walking through the mall during holiday shopping season can cause pain.

Chronic pain can make it hard to perform daily activities like cleaning the house, dressing or looking after your kids. However, there are ways to effectively managing chronic arthritis pain, from taking appropriate medication, to staying active, to maintaining a positive outlook. Meet three people who refuse to let arthritis pain run their lives.

Mona Gardner: Managing Pain With Medication

Three years ago, Mona Gardner was active and healthy, working full time teaching research classes at a local university. One day, she woke up with terrible pain in her hands, feet and skin.

“I couldn’t even open the doors of my car,” says Gardner, 74, of Littleton, CO. Her primary-care physician dismissed her symptoms at first as the typical aches and pains that one might expect at her age, but Gardner was unconvinced. “I said, no. I have friends who pop two Aleve pills in the morning and then they’re good to go. That was not working for me.”

Pressing for a more accurate diagnosis, Gardner went through a series of blood and imaging tests and learned she had rheumatoid arthritis, a condition in which the body’s immune system goes awry and begins to attack its own tissues, triggering painful inflammation in the joints. Gardner was stunned to learn she had this disease, which typically emerges in younger people.

“I never want to feel pain like that again!” says Gardner, recalling her early flares of joint inflammation before going on disease-modifying drugs for her RA. “My skin hurt. My joints all ached. I could have probably been overtaken by depression at the time. I couldn’t do anything. If it wasn’t for my husband, I don’t know what I would have done. My hands hurt so badly, I couldn’t buckle a belt. He had to do that too. I don’t want to feel like that ever again.”

Instead of giving in to her pain, Gardner sought treatment from a rheumatologist. She began taking the disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) to control the physical processes that cause her inflammation. She also pushed herself to stay physically active by taking Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program and dance classes and continuing her work at the Regis University.

Gardner also made an effort to maintain a positive attitude about living with arthritis. “I thought, ‘I am not going to just sit here. If I have to deal with this pain when I am doing my exercise classes, that’s what I’ll do!’ The lucky thing for me is that I am not expected to move around a lot at my age. But I want to!” she says.

Steve Wallace: Managing Pain with Exercise

Steve Wallace played football for years – from high school in Chamblee, GA., to college at Auburn University in Alabama, to the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Mementos from his career include several glittery Super Bowl championship rings and terrible knee pain from osteoarthritis (OA) a condition in which the cartilage that covers the ends of bones that make up a joint erodes. The constant pounding involved in professional football, something he describes as “going through an auto accident once a week,” likely led to his condition.

“It never crosses your mind that you could get an injury that would hamper you for the rest of your life,” says Wallace, 46. "I try to deal with the pain and the stress that goes with it, to deal with my discomfort.”

A former offensive lineman, Wallace is 6’5” and weighed 280 pounds in his peak playing days. Now the Atlanta-based businessman is retired from football and relies on weight management and regular cardiovascular exercise to control both the physical and emotional aspects of chronic arthritis pain. He works out regularly, riding a recumbent bicycle and doing resistance training in water – something he learned from his playing days.

“Doing a ton of cardio makes a huge difference” in controlling his weight to lessen pressure on his knees and to stay healthier and more energetic, he says. He also pays close attention to his diet to control his weight, as extra pounds on an already large frame can worsen pain in his knees – he’s lost all the cushioning cartilage in one knee and about 90 percent in the other. “Ten to 15 pounds makes a huge difference. Otherwise, I would have constant swelling in my knees.”

He’s holding out hope that “someone will invent something other than total knee replacement” to address OA like his, but he knows that at some point, joint replacement may be his best hope for controlling pain.

Phyllis Shlecter: Managing Pain With A Positive Attitude

Although she wasn’t a pro football player being knocked around every Sunday, Phyllis Shlecter was a highly active person who played tennis four days a week and worked full-time as a schoolteacher when, at 49, she suddenly developed symptoms of RA that she calls frightening.

“My feet were swollen. I had to wear slippers because I couldn’t put shoes on. My feet doubled in size and my hands looked like monster’s hands,” recalls Shlecter, now 84 and living in Los Angeles.

Shlecter’s RA was diagnosed in 1976, when doctors had few weapons to offer her to treat her inflammation. “I was told to take 10 aspirin a day and learn to live with my pain,” she says. She went back to teaching, but getting around the multi-story building became too difficult and she retired early. “It was so typical – within five years of diagnosis many of us leave the workforce.

Shlecter underwent joint surgeries and rehabilitation, used a walker and a wheelchair, and lost her ability to walk. Eventually, she got on the road to recovery by taking Plaquenil and NSAIDs to control the inflammation.

Despite all the medical treatments, Shlecter touts a positive attitude as the most effective weapon against arthritis pain. She began volunteering with her local Arthritis Foundation chapter in 1984, and read every piece of material she could find on RA.

Now she tries to avoid certain activities that might cause pain or injury to badly affected joints. “I don’t let anybody shake my hands. They have not stopped hurting in 35 years, and they’re disfigured. I can only type on the computer with one finger,” she says with a laugh. “I can’t open jars or a water bottle, even with the help of an opener. I can’t open anything.”

But Shlecter refuses to let pain keep her from enjoying life. “My rheumatologist calls me a denier. I choose to ignore the pain! I do what I can,” she says. “Everybody has their own level of tolerance.”

Despite the effects of her RA, she sticks to regular physical activity, including walking and exercising in the pool and Jacuzzi.  She credits Southern California’s warm weather with making it easier to stay active, but there’s another motivating factor. Her window overlooks the rehab center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where she once stayed for surgeries and difficult recoveries. She says she doesn’t want to go back to that way of living.

“I have a cane and a walker in my closet – but I’m walking!” she jokes.

Self Management Tools

To boost your ability to deal with arthritis pain, these self-management strategies are key:

Take your meds. Prescription and over-the-counter drugs recommended by your doctor can help control inflammation and pain. If you have side effects that keep you from taking your medications, or if you have trouble affording their cost, speak to your doctor to explore other options.

Get regular, joint-safe physical activity. Activities like walking, working out on machines at your local gym, taking low-impact floor or water exercise classes, or doing yoga can help reduce joint pain and improve flexibility. Calorie-burning cardiovascular exercise can help control weight too.

Manage your weight. Excess weight can cause additional pressure to some weight-bearing joints and increase pain, and being overweight is bad for your overall health and energy levels.

Keep a positive attitude. Many people with chronic arthritis pain cite a positive attitude with boosting their ability to cope with pain. Don’t give in to pain. Find ways to fight it instead. Do things you love to do to keep your spirits high.