Dear Medical Professionals, If you are a practitioner, please share this. It’s about what chronic pain patients wish medical professionals understood when they see you for testing. You see, I spend a lot of my time online. Talking with patients, listening to their stories, and helping them to find help. It’s amazing to me how…
Listen in as Bethany shares her struggle with pain as a newlywed and a new teacher. We chat about lumpy SI belts, the depression that sneaks in when you lose the ability to do the things you love. Just how desperate most people are to simply do “the right thing” to “get fixed”. We chat…
Restoring YOU Ep 08 Trish: SI Joint Fusion Listen in as Trish shares very candidly about her experience with persisting pain and its effect on every aspect of her life. From the depth of devastation her pain brought. The effects of fear in her life and on her SI Joint Fusion recovery. And the importance…
Guilt and Shame These 2 insidious creatures, guilt, and shame seem to accompany pain the longer we travel on that road. I find them detestable in the way they hurt me and my friends. I want to take a look at this because I think these emotions seriously hinder us and hold us back in…
Restoring YOU Ep 07 Erin Jackson: Pelvic Pain Listen in as Erin Jackson from Inspire Sante.com talks about her experience with persistent pelvic pain,the reality of traveling to find care for pain that persists and how her journey helped her discover a whole new life she never knew was possible. Meet Erin Founder and president…
What Do my MRI results mean? I hear this one a lot. Got my X-ray results, MRI results, CT results, and Bone Scan results on my low back/ SI joint and they really didn’t find anything. What does this mean? What do my MRI results mean?! How do they relate to my pain?! It sounds…
Episode 06 Liz: Pregnancy after Ifuse Enjoy this episode where Liz shares about her pregnancy after Ifuse & the struggle being a military wife with two young boys at home while experiencing chronic SI pain. Learning to entertain them from the couch with sock doge ball. She realizes the importance of her mental health in her healing from physical pain…
Restoring YOU Ep 05 Chloe: Back pain relief and Peeing while running Listen to this refreshingly honest interview in Chloe Pedley from Polkadotsi.com shares her story of how she got Back pain relied by challenging beliefs and how she learned to lean on fences to get her groove back. In a very vulnerable interview we talk about…
When pain persists it is not uncommon to lose pieces of ourselves and not even realize it. I’ve written a little 28-day pain journal to help people with the aspects of pain that are not “stretching and exercise”. It grew out of reflection on my own journey with pain and seeing how I had lost…
Getting Wet! Have you been told you should try getting in the water to help reduce your pain? Do you think that might be a great idea but have NO idea what to do once you get to the pool? Here are 5 videos to help you get some ideas for pool exercises to reduce…
Restoring YOU Ep 02 & 03: Christy Cross Fit and EDS can go together! In the second and third episode of Restoring YOU join me, Amy Eicher, as I talk with Christy about what it means to be diagnosed with persisting/ Chronic pain and EDS. Listen and learn as she shares how she came to…
Tending an Aching Back with or without Epsom Salt Often in the midst of pain, we get so busy surviving we forget how to thrive. Simple pleasures like a warm bath become too taxing to initiate. Consider for a moment this ritual might be a window toward a thriving life. Consider, that a bath may…
Restoring YOU ep 01 Katherine: Lower back pain In this first episode of Restoring YOU join me, Amy Eicher, as I talk with Katherine about her journey through lower back pain and how she found her ability to restore herself with volunteer work, & eventually learns to trust herself & her body enough to get pregnant after years…
This Hot pack should be comfortably WARM but not HOT… Would you believe me if I told you they drilled us to say that at PTA school? It was the most bizarre thing, especially because I don’t think valuable therapy time should be wasted with you sitting or laying on a hot pack… which is…
Ever notice people react quite strongly to their love of heat or ice? Icing for pain, you love it, but you’ve been told to use heat, but you hate it. I’m here to tell you, stop feeling guilty! Icing for pain is just fine! You don’t want to “do the wrong thing” and feel…
Maybe you have heard that meditation or mindfulness can help you in learning to move beyond your pain. Good news, it CAN. If you are like me – this is a SUPER hard thing to do. Not gonna lie to you all. I have struggled with quieting my mind in my faith, yoga practice,…
For many, a trip to the Disney parks is a once-in-a-lifetime experience — one that they will never forget. A lot of time, money, and effort are spent planning any major travel event, and no one wants their vacation to be marked by pain. Don’t let pain deter you; there are many ways to have a successful Disney World vacation.
Reflections on SI surgery and pain As I revisit and reflect on this post it is now 8/13/2018. I am now 7.5 years out from surgery. Doing even better than I was 3 years post-op and glad I have shed even more beliefs that were holding me back from living like I am now. My…
My perspective is shifting. It’s crazy to watch it. I see it in the way I think and the way I respond to people asking questions online. I am really becoming a therapist. It’s weird in a lot of ways and I feel like a split personality sometimes when working with my patients. I…
When living in pain for days, weeks, months, and years, we can go through medical professionals like tissue. Sometimes as many professionals as tears we have cried. They poke, they prod, they draw blood, they take images, they scratch their heads at the pain in our faces and have no answers. So we move on……
I just left the hospital. I had to say goodbye to an old friend today. She’s the Mom of one of my very favorite Young Life kids. She and her husband treated me like family when I was in college. So many nights hanging out with the kids at their house, relaxing in the hammock,…
Every once in a while a brave soul asks about how those in chronic pain maintain a sex life, or feelings of being a sexual person, or even just feeling beautiful. I’ve touched on this topic a few times throughout my journey and find my inbox full when I do. It’s come up for me…
I think I am finally rounding a corner again after being injured again 8 weeks ago. It’s surprising, and nice to finally feel like I am following the “textbook” of healing and not mapping out my own route. I saw my Primary Care Dr a few weeks ago to get cleared to go back to…
As I ponder the world acceptance I am reminded of one of my very first patients as a student PTA. I had the great privilege of meeting an outstanding human being during the first few weeks of my first rotation. She taught me an enormous amount about real acceptance. Allowing horrible things to be what…
My brain is like a very fat tired hamster in a wheel. It squeaks and isn’t moving very fast. I had forgotten how much pain slows you down and makes everything a million times harder. It’s hard to focus in class, on my studies, on the words coming out of people’s mouths! It’s really hard…
With the “gift” of experiencing some of my SI pain again, I find myself wanting to write many of the things that I thought when I was in pain ALL the time down. I have had so many conversations with other friends in chronic pain about the things we think, and say to each other,…
It has been a long time since I uttered these words due to pain. The words tasted like battery acid crossing my lips, poison, foulness. I uttered them again this week. I am in full-on, full-blown pain. The burning is just like before surgery. The burning that I have said repeatedly I NEVER want to…
I wanted to share some reflections from when I was invited to tag along to a friend’s doctor appointment. The appointment was at surgeons office that performs SI surgeries. I went along to watch, and to ask “those” questions, you know the ones you think of AFTER you leave the appointment, and to remember all…
