This. One of the dangerous things about chronical pain that I think might be underappreciated is that it blinds you to signals that in a healthy person would cause them to seek medical help. When doctors ask now I always caveat that I’m a poor witness of my own wellness because there have been times when I felt like I was doing fine but in fact needed surgery. I don’t know how doctors (or occupational health, or social workers, or carers) do it, there’s basically no reliable information in talking to an ill person but that’s like 90% of what you have to go on.