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

New help for physicians working on pain management

Do you feel that your doctor isn’t managing your pain properly? If you have pain, either short-term or long-term, chances are you aren’t being managed properly if you have a doctor who is uncertain of how to use certain types of medications, namely opioids (narcotics).

The uncertainty could be from fear of their patients becoming addicted, for example. Unfortunately, that way of thinking still holds true for many doctors – even if it’s not right. Other doctors are just not familiar with how to prescribe narcotics, be it for what type of pain, the dosage, and the frequency.

If you live in the United States, this may change as the push to educate healthcare providers regarding pain control makes its way to the doctors. The Federation of State Medical Boards Research and Education Foundation (FSMB) has published and made available country-wide, the Model Policy for the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain, a handbook for physicians.

It seems like a good step in the right direction.

Take my acupuncture poll at Help My Hurt - do you use acupuncture?
Also: What type of chronic pain do you have? and How often do you take over-the-counter pain relievers?

News for Today

Listen-up ladies: Don’t postpone knee-replacement surgery
Transplant drug sirolimus shrinks tumors, improves lung function
Physicians Gain New Tool To Better Manage Acute And Chronic Pain
Chromosome abnormality linked to autism, study finds