It hurts

What do you do when it hurts so bad?  You leave the pain, walk away, and hope it only resurfaces on rare occasions.  When it does, it keeps you up at night, it leaves you feeling like someone punched you in the gut, hard!!  So how can we be functional when that happens?  We still need to work, clean, run, walk dogs, and get on with the business of living.  I am just not sure how to do it.  I move along and then it rears its ugly head, and I want to go back into flight mode.  I need to stop thinking and looking at the things that hurt!