Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

[Chronic pain]

Pain is the body’s response to a problem. This is a way to let them know that something is wrong. But what happens when that pain has no concrete source and he becomes a problem? 20% of the population suffers from chronic pain, and medicine does not have an accurate response to this condition. Today we are approaching the Pain Unit of the San Sebastian Hospital. There, they try to relieve the pain of sick threads and improve their quality of life.

It's 9:30 in the morning. In Ambrosio Egaña’s house, his wife, María Jesús, helps her husband get up, but first, in order to have a good day, she gives the command to start the electrostimulators that she has placed on her back bone. Activating them is the first task of the
day. An electrostimulator is an electrode that sends electricity to the nervous system to reduce pain. As
a result of a herniated disc, Ambrosio was tied to a wheelchair almost 15 years ago, and to the pain that never goes away. Pain itself has become a disease, and dealing with it is the daily struggle.

AMBROSIO EGAÑA: I was four years, almost five, instead of dying in pain, I couldn't stand it. They took me to the Panplona, but... He even took it from me in Panplona... so I couldn't be in pain. Like the drugs I was given, I used to wear them in the afternoon... well... badly.

Chronic pain affects 20% of the European population; however, only 2% of patients receive treatment.

Chronic pain only requires care in a small number of hospitals. Pain units have been created in these hospitals. They are pain relief units, in which they try to improve the quality of life of the patient.

The problem of chronic pain affects many ailments and the treatments are varied. However, there are no specialized personnel, and anesthesiologists and neurosurgeons usually deal with these cases in pain units.

Pain units were created in the world three decades ago and are still in the process of development today.

At San Sebastian Hospital, they have one of these pain units.

MIGUEL MARIN; San Sebastian Hospital: These units are for the study and treatment of pain. If a person has pain, he or she should first go to the family doctor's office and be initially diagnosed, see what he or she has and try to fix it at that level. No one can come to these units on their own, we need diagnosis and study. And when the other vials are exhausted, then we'll see if we have any techniques to ease their pain.

Every six months, Ambrosio attends the Pain Unit of the Hospital of San Sebastián for the examination. It feels like home there.

MIGUEL MARIN; San Sebastian Hospital: Patients come to us full of plaques and information after being in eleven other places. And they don't have a reference point. They all go from one to the other because the problem has no solution, and it is, it has no
solution. First, we need to address the issue: "This has no solution, but we will try to make you feel better," and that's what we tell patients.

Painkillers are the first step in starting treatment, but they are often not enough.

MIGUEL MARIN; San Sebastian Hospital: In some situations, with some technique, we are able to relieve pain for a period of time and the patient stops taking medication. But most of the time, the pain will be there, and we will have to treat it like any
other chronic condition. We use nerve block techniques, spinal cord approach techniques, electrode placement, morphine dosing systems...

Ambrosio's electrostimulator on his back has allowed him to reduce the amount of medication.

AMBROSIO EGAÑA: I used to take them for 32-33 days, and now I take 15 and a half or whatever 16.

Like Ambrose, Jose has an electrode, but on the surface of the brain. The electrode sends pulses to change the conduction of the pain pathways, and Joseph no longer feels violent pain. From time
to time, you should go to change the battery and reprogram the device. He then controls the electrostimulator pulses to relieve the pain.

MIGUEL MARIN; San Sebastian Hospital: For pain in the extremities, or for resistant angina in the chest, the patient feels the threshold of paresthesia. Notice that the pleasant tingles take the place of pain. And he graduates, both the hours and the intensity...

From JOSE: My medication has been cut in half and I have a very high quality of life of 75-80%.

Another technique used by pain experts is that of radio frequency. They burn the ends of the sensory nerves that cause pain.

MIGUEL MARIN; San Sebastian Hospital: It’s like when the dentist devitalizes a tooth; we kill that small nerve, in quotation marks, because it redirects over time, so these techniques are temporary. It is possible to do it again. We modulate the sensation of pain so that the patient does not feel it.
Other times, we use neurolytic agents to destroy the nerve. We usually use it with cancer patients; with resistant pain, morphine, and in other specific situations it is necessary to analyze the cases one by one.

In addition to physical pain, patients must suffer psychological consequences.

Mª JESUS ETXANIZ: Pain cannot be measured, there are no machines to measure pain. So, many say, even the doctors, there will be a depression, he's making it up, which makes you incredibly powerless. You know that he is suffering and you can’t explain it to him: I have pain or that’s what I have. This is very hard for the patient, but almost harder for the one next to him.

Ambrose and Joseph have found here the desire to live again. Although the pain has not gone away, it is now portable and they have managed to recover their quality of life.