Toni Woodard
Living Well with Chronic Pain: Interview with Author Toni Woodard, "I'm FINE"
In this powerful episode of Northwest Book Talk, we sit down with Toni Woodard, author of I’m FINE: A Practical Guide to Life With Chronic Pain, to explore what it really means to live with ongoing physical pain.
After enduring failed spinal surgeries in her thirties, Toni turned her personal struggles into a practical, compassionate guide for others navigating chronic pain.
We talk about the emotional toll that pain takes—on relationships, work, and mental health—and why it’s so often overlooked by doctors.
Toni shares her hard-earned wisdom, tools for resilience, and how she’s managed to build a rewarding life despite daily challenges.
Whether you live with chronic pain or love someone who does, this conversation offers hope, honesty, and real-life strategies.
📘 I’m Fine is available now in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats.
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I'm FINE: A Practical Guide to Life With Chronic Pain
After our radio talk, Toni shared more . . .
Oh, absolutely! Although revisiting some topics was difficult, it was cathartic to bring them out into new light and write about them with the benefit of time, distance, and experience.
I found more peace, acceptance, and contentment with my life’s path as a result of writing my book.
I was surprised to realize that I needed to write the book for me, too – not just for the community of chronic pain sufferers I am trying to reach.
In a roundabout way, I met a woman named Heather a couple of months after my book came out.
She has lived with chronic pain for decades and spends a lot of her time seeing doctors and organizing her life and activities around her pain.
She sent me notes as she read my book, excited, bewildered, and celebrating finding a book that she related to so well and so deeply.
She suddenly didn’t feel as lonely and as though nobody really understood what she goes through on a daily basis.
She started recommending my book to all sorts of people, including her doctors!
I’m in tears again recalling that early confirmation that my book is filling a gap.
People have told me they appreciate the humor and lightness while addressing some heavy topics.
I’ve also been told my book is an easy read and is surprisingly fun and conversational.
One early reader commended me for getting right to the point without a bunch of unnecessary “blah blah blah” to fill up pages.
That still makes me smile!
The feedback that makes me cry, though, is when someone tells me my book made them feel validated, heard, seen, and normal.
That means everything to me.
My support group of 7 achy women calls itself “Got Your Back.”
They were all incredibly supportive, encouraging, and helpful as I wrote my book.
They agreed that it was needed – that a hopeful, helpful, practical book about living with chronic pain was not yet to be found.
I shared early outlines with them to make sure I hadn’t forgotten needed topics.
I tapped into their experiences and stories to give additional examples of navigating pain clinics and doctors and surgeries and sex lives with chronic pain.
A couple of them were beta readers, giving me invaluable feedback on my “I’m almost there!” draft.
They continue to be a lifeline and some of my biggest cheerleaders.
I have had husbands, wives, parents, adult children, friends – all sorts of people who love people with chronic pain – thank me for helping them better understand their loved ones.
Even people in my own life, whom I’ve known for years, have told me they understand me better having read my book.
People in daily pain tend to keep pretty quiet about it.
We work hard to fake it when other people are looking.
Caregivers have told me that they can now have gentler, more compassionate, more fruitful conversations with their loved ones who hurt because my book has helped them understand so much of what is rarely said.
The print book is by far the most popular.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I think I thought the e-book format would be a little more popular than it is since Kindles seem ubiquitous.
Having said that, there does seem to be a returning appreciation for holding a real book with real pages.
What has surprised me is how popular the audiobook is – it is on par with the e-book.
My gut told me it was critical to provide an audio option given my target audience (just holding a book or sitting up to read a book can be challenging for some pained folks).
Turns out my gut was right!
Even though I did almost everything myself, I tapped into the knowledge and experience of a lot of people!
I talked to other authors, and I scoured the internet for videos and blogs and Facebook communities.
I found guidance on everything from whether I needed a business license to which font is best to use to what software program to use for recording an audiobook to what search words are best on Amazon listings.
I hired an editor but ultimately found some software that was more cost-effective.
I also hired a graphic designer to create my cover, a professional photographer to take my author photo, and an accountant who talked me off the ledge of wanting to quit because sales tax is stupid.
I am still a blogger!
Almost 20 years and counting about whatever randomness strikes my fancy.
I am also a restaurant reviewer for a local monthly newspaper. It’s a dream gig – I get paid to eat and write about it!
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