Ever feel like a hamster stuck in a wheel of pain? Lord knows I have. Questioning if I would ever get my life back. Stuck in a wheel of Boom and bust. Good days and bad days, unpredictability, lost in brain fog and medication haze. Stuck in cycles of pushing hard and then being stuck…
New Year, new resolutions. Are you ready to try a different way of dealing with your pain? Read on to learn about the stages of readiness for change.
‘Tis the season of expectations, parties and all things pressure. Those experiencing chronic pain many experience increased pain and stress over the holidays. Learn to manage the season and your pain with pacing.
We all want to know how to calm a flare up right? I think we would all agree flares of pain are no fun. In prior posts, I’ve talked about Red Flags to watch for to know when to go to the ER, and things I’ve learned during my 20-year journey with pain in prior…
You’re writhing in your bed. You woke up and your back pain is out of control. It hurts to move. It hurts to breathe. You are scared. Rightfully so. Unsure what to do and if the pain might kill you. It feels like it might sometimes, I know I’ve been there. Laying in bed with…
Understanding Pain Flares: What I’ve Learned from My Journey Pain flares drove me up a freaking wall during my journey through pain. Just when I thought I had things under control, BAM! My pain would spike, and I’d lose my mind, my hope, and my will to keep going. In short, pain flares suck. One…
Stress and Pain: Part 2 If stress is linked to our experience of pain – as the sample papers indicate in my last post here Then what else do we need to know about stress and pain? How does it affect us? I find this an important idea to explore. I felt really validated in…
Why you should reconsider stress as a factor in your chronic pain Stress and Chronic pain We’ve all heard it before. You go to the doctor to discuss your pain and after all the scans come back with nothing abnormal and then they suggest you are depressed or have anxiety and should medicate it. Maybe…
Why is pain so distressing? Pain is such a personal experience. Often strange, seemingly unpredictable, hard to explain, and even harder to communicate to someone else what is being experienced. Do you know what else seems to be hard? Communicating facts and experiences about pain as a provider. Seems like it should be pretty straightforward,…
Over and over again I am asked why I do what I do. How I got to where I am. Why I believe the things I believe. It’s impossible to sum up a life time of experiences in a few thousand words on a blog post, and harder still in a couple sentences on social media. I still had to give it a try.
As a teacher, I emphasize to my students that art can be a release, but never had I thought of this going beyond self-expression. I certainly hadn’t considered it for my own pain management.
Have you ever thought about Goal setting with your provider? If not, you really should.
In this post I want to share with you why I think it’s important and how to do it.
7 Benefits of Volunteering for those suffering from Chronic Pain Living with chronic pain is hard. As I read Amy’s upcoming memoir, Restoring Venus, it brought to my attention how hard it can be. Struggling for years with my own severe depression and anxiety, I felt like no one really knew what I was going…
Keith Meldrum shares more thoughts as someone living in pain on pain. Keith has experienced 3 decades of pain after a near-fatal accident. Read on to hear his story and thoughts on resilience and self-management. Keith has lived with chronic pain for nearly 32 years ( as of 2018), following a serious single-vehicle motor vehicle…
Keith Meldrum is an amazing human living with pain. His posts throughout National Pain Awareness Week 2018 were so fantastic I asked if I could share them with all of you. Enjoy this 2 part post from Keith about the truths of living with pain. Keith has lived with chronic pain for nearly 32 years…
Let’s get down to business and outline the important parts of your medical history to help your providers help you!
4 Helpful Way To Communicate About Pain Beyond the Pain Scale Let’s talk about the Pain Scale today, shall we? As a patient, I HATED them. I would go into an appointment hoping to talk about how the pain was affecting me and my life and my ability to function, and instead, I would be…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
