Chronic Pain Today

On PodNova there is a very good podcast on Phantom Pains: Treatment and Relief of Chronic Pain. Many times we know what is causing out pain, sometimes we don’t but we can still see the area or know its there. For those that are suffering from chronic pain because of phantoms it is a different story. Too many times, a patient will lose a limb and there will still be pain. They are looking into the effects of a possible phantom organ link as well (where an organ causing pain prior to surgery is removed and yet can continue to pump out pain responses even after removal).

 I can understand the phantom organ aspect. I had my gallbladder removed two Februarys ago and there are times when I swear that is still the pain that I’m feeling. It is a very surreal state to be in, but then I tell myself that its only psychosomatic and that I’m not really feeling it since it isn’t even there. Little comfort but its all I have to go on at the moment.

Do you or someone you know have phantom pains, either limb or organ? I’d love to hear about it, please post in the comment section if you do. And have a happy and healthy, pain free day dear readers.

My chiropractor’s wife is having a baby and so that means that he is taking a multiweek hiatus on the pain management clinic. It has been 11 days since I’ve had an adjustment and the pressure point therapy AND the soft tissue work on my neck. I feel like I’m in withdrawal. I’m trying to remember all the things that he said I could do at home that would recreate what he does in the office, but to no avail. It was amazing how different I felt after seeing him after just a few weeks. His fee is totally worth it.

In another light. My LBS (low blood sugar) is getting extremely wonky right now. I’m not sure if it is related to me trying to get sick or what, but its been giving me fits later in the day and evening. I wanted to go out tomorrow evening like normal people, but now I’m afraid that I’m going to be symptomatic like I was last night again and ruin it for everyone.

I’m ready for 2009, who’s with me??

According to a new NIH study, about 40% of Americans are now turning to alternative forms of treatment for their chronic pain. This of course comes as no surprise to me as when traditional medicine failed me (Thinking instead of what I actually suffer from that I was suffering from a vicodin deficiency) I turned to alternative treatments. Now after months of chiropractic care and from accupressure I am feeling tremendously better. I still have bad days and there is still the lack of planning because I don’t know what I will be like from day to day, but my outlook is much better.

Why this new turnaround?? Why are we now embracing eastern practices and non western ways after decades of calling it quackery?? The NIH sums it up as this: “many people feel alternative medicine may work better for them than typical medical approaches, with fewer bad side effects.”

See more at : NIH

A great resource if you are from canada and looking for some real personal stories of people going through the same thing that you or a loved one is going through, FACES OF PAIN.

Faces of Pain was started by the Canadian Pain Coalition, Chronic Pain Association of Canada, and L’Association Québéquoise contre la douleur chronique. They are currently on the look out for ” patients to submit a 300 word-story with a photograph that describes their own personal journey with Pain. ” So if you are from Canada and would like to share your story, I hope that you will give it a go. It will definitely be comforting to others to know that they aren’t alone in this.

They believe that sharing these stories with others will “expand the community of support  and will help to illustrate the human cost of living in pain ” and I wholeheartedly agree. The first thing that many of us do when we are faced with this is to look to see what others did, what others tried, how others failed and what failed them. We want that bond that we aren’t facing this alone and that our sometimes weird symptoms are actually normal after all. It makes us whole.

Tomorrow I go to the chiro again, I see him every monday now. It can’t come too soon.

Ever since Saturday I’ve had a headache that will not go away, a jaw ache, and a neck/upper back ache. I’m completely compressed feeling and it’s like the upper half of my body is having a tooth ache. I need a total workup: The adjustment, the pressure point therapy, and this cool soft tissue work he does by scraping a metal spoon like thing over my tense muscles to unravel them.

I had planned to bring you a post on pressure point therapy and what it is, what it does, and how it helps. A really good multi part thing, that you dear readers would have loved I’m sure. But right now I’m doing good to string a sentence together and its just not going to happen. Perhaps Tuesday if it all gets worked out tomorrow.

Until then, stay health, keep your chin up, and remember, we’re all in this together.

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