Managing pain when it affects your life

I've been whining over at www.helpmyhurt.com about my sore neck (Posts may slow down and Officially whining now) because it's been really affecting my life for the past week. Then, I realized that this week's Company's calling feature is about a surgeon who had to retire because of unrelenting nerve pain.

One reason I write the Help My Hurt blog is because pain can have such a devastating effect on people and it has such a high economic cost for both society and the people effected. Pain, like lower back pain - which is one of the most common chronic pain complaints in the so-called developed world - costs millions of dollars to society, employers and the healthcare system.

Besides not be able to work or being able to work as efficiently as before, people who used to be very productive in their personal life can no longer keep up the pace they used to keep. Volunteers may not be able to help coach the local baseball team, the Meals on Wheels volunteer may no longer be able to drive, the lay minister may no longer be able to visit the sick, and so on. So, it really is more than just economics - it affects society.

What is the solution? More research is being done on chronic pain. At a recent conference, physicians called for chronic pain to be designated a chronic illness - but will that help at all?

Many people with chronic pain can function well at certain times. I remember the first time I was off work as a nurse with a very sore back, I could still go out and shop (I had to, I needed food) and when a coworker saw me on the bus, she was very nasty about me being supposedly off sick because I was injured. I *was* injured. I couldn't work as a nurse. I couldn't sit for long periods and I couldn't stand for long periods. But I could get out of the house and run errands if my back felt up to it and I needed to.

Maybe before the issue of chronic pain and its economic impact can be addressed, we still need to work on the social and emotional view of others who live with it?

News for Today:
Some PediaCol drops could hurt children
Health Canada warns of serious skin reactions in patients taking carbamazepine
Health Canada recalls a brand of blood thinner
Study finds pitching mound height affects throwing motion, injury risk

Boot camp for pain

There's an interesting story on CTV news, Boot camps' treat pain sufferers. What makes such a story interesting is that the premise isn't new. The basis behind such a program is there is a need for a team approach to treat chronic pain. Isn't that something that we've been trying to get done within the medical community for so long?

It's really just common sense. There isn't just one issue when someone has a chronic illness or chronic pain, so it doesn't make sense to have just one branch of medicine to deal with it. In all fairness, many doctors do incorporate other services for their patients, like physiotherapy. But sometimes it take a lot more than just that. A full-service, whole team approach is what is needed in so many cases. It's a shame that it takes a program like this that is expensive as well as unreachable for many (who can take four weeks from their life to go to such a boot camp?) for this to become newsworthy.


News for Today:
Positive thinking may help heart patients live longer: study
Boot camps' treat pain sufferers
Parents told to avoid lindane-laced lice shampoo
Obesity lowers breast cancer survival
Seasonal allergies could spark depression, fatigue
Don't Prescribe Antibiotics for Adult Sinus Woes
New Study: Pycnogenol(R) Improves Memory in Elderly

Do you have a pain story to share?

Do you have chronic pain or a story about pain that you would like to share?

As some of my regular readers know, I also have a blog called Help My Hurt, which is about pain. We talk about causes of pain, management, treatment, prevention, news releases, and whatever else may come up. We have a few giggles too, with our Friday Funnies.

Every Monday, we have a feature called Company's calling. This is an interview with someone who has chronic pain or is living/helping with someone who does. We've heard from people who have back pain, knee pain, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, and so on.

Do you have a story to tell? Would you like to be interviewed for the feature? If so, please email me at sesesi(at)yahoo.com (take out the (at) an replace it with @) .

You can check out previous features (the site looks funny now, there's something wrong with the servers, but you can still access it):
Company’s calling - a mom’s pain gone undiagnosed and unmanaged
Company’s calling - back pain
Company’s calling - a journey with fibromyalgia
Company’s calling - the road to a diagnosis for endometriosis
Company’s calling - living with migraine pain
Company’s calling - living with the pain of interstitial cystitis
Company’s calling - 6 weeks of pain so far
Company’s calling - a guest discusses living with pain


News for Today:
Hormone replacement therapy appears to have no effect on risk and severity of rheumatoid arthritis
U of Minnesota study finds thalidomide shows promise for treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer
Chewing gum -- the new post-operative medicine
Does gingko biloba affect memory?
Drug-resistant TB at all-time high: WHO
Neurofeedback may decrease autism symptoms: study
All kids 6 months and older should get flu shot: U.S. panel
No proof of heart risk from Nexium: Health Canada
Experts Are Concerned Court Case May Scare Off Potential Organ Donors
Robot as good as real dog at easing lonely hours

Seniors and chronic pain

It stands to reason that many seniors experience chronic pain because many tend to have disorders or illnesses that can contribute to pain. The issue isn't so much that they have it - it's what we need to do about it.

Did you know that, in Canada, seniors are expected to make up about one-quarter the population by the year 2031? People who are in pain are less able to contribute to society, less able to care for themselves and require more assistance from others.

As the population ages, there will be fewer people in caregiving roles who will have to give more care. The CBC has an article on chronic pain and the elderly. It's a bit of an eye opener if this isn't an issue you've yet thought about:

News for Today:
Chronic pain a big issue for seniors: StatsCan
Improvement in diabetes a positive side effect of obesity surgery
Strokes triple among middle-aged women in U.S.: study
1 in 4 Americans knows heart attack warning signs: CDC
Stroke more prevalent in United States than in Europe
A regular dip could benefit fibromyalgia sufferers

My back is *not* happy

Ack, my back! As a nurse, I know I’m not alone with my sore back. Because of our heavy lifting and awkward body mechanics, it’s not unusual to see a nurse rubbing his or her sore lower back and even calling in sick from time to time because it’s almost impossible to move.

I was reading some stats because of some articles I was working on. I knew back pain was common, but what I didn’t know was that in North America and other Western societies, we have a 65% to 85% chance of developing lower back pain at some point in our life and up to 75% can have a relapse. Of course, that means that many of us have a chance of not developing back pain, but I’m definitely in that 75% that relapses regularly. And I never know what will do it. This week, it was going to the driving range with my husband.

I learned how to golf a few summers ago but never had the time to get halfway decent. I decided that this was the year that I would. Well, after that first trip to the driving range, I’m rethinking that. My body mechanics were fine, I was hitting the ball really well, but my back just didn’t appreciate doing what I wanted it to do. Very frustrating.

We know that a lot of the level of chronic pain we experience is related to our mental health. That's not to say if you have pain, you’re not mentally well! But, there have been studies that have shown that people who learn how to handle their pain, through cognitive behaviour therapy, or biodfeedback, techniques like that, tend to report lower levels of pain. So maybe I have to find a way to handle this and to convince my back that I’m not going to stop golfing, no matter what it says. :-)

Seriously though, I do stretch and I do try to be very careful. After all, it is the only back I have. If any one has any suggestions, I’d love to hear about them. Exercising helps to a certain degree, but I still have to be very, very careful.

News for today:
Sleep apnea increases risk of diabetes and hypertension in pregnant women
Heart guidelines aim to prevent defects in newborns
Weight training reverses muscle aging: Study