Vina's pain journey began after an accident in high school. She experienced damage to her eye and surrounding areas. As the fractures were healing, Vina began to experience high levels of pain. Unfortunately, she encountered medical gaslighting and had her experience dismissed. As a racialized teen from a low SES family, she struggled to access pain management resources. After several visits to her local emergency room for pain, she was referred to the newly developed SickKids Chronic Pain Clinic in Toronto, ON. It was quickly discovered that Vina’s orbital floor was leaking and compressing the trigeminal nerve. Her healthcare team decided to operate and complete a nerve decompression and repair of the orbital floor. The surgery was successful, but unfortunately, Vina experienced an increase in neuropathic pain in her face. She was distraught because of her expectations of surgery to “fix” all her pain. Luckily, she had tools to manage pain she previously learned prior to surgery. Vina hopes to highlight the differences in patient experience between chronic post-surgical pain and chronic pain. She also hopes to highlight the importance of timely intervention and utilizing psychological, physical, and pharmacological techniques to build a toolkit to manage pain peri and post-operatively.