http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/07spring/Pain.asp

Thanks for this. I really needed to see someone here look at this holistically. Why do we have to prove our pain? Do that many people really use it as an escape? I join hands with all who cry alone and only want to sing. May our collective voice be heard, believed and treated effectively.
Maybe we could develop a password that says to all health care providers that what we say is true. Obviously "ouch" doesn't work.Here's to HOPE.

Yeah Bonnie--I too have often wondered: Why do we have to prove our pain? Do that many people really use it as an escape?. For so very long I was told it was in my head and I woul djust look at them and ask, "Do you really think I would make myself feel this way just for attention?" I have 5 kids and had so many things to do and felt trapped by a body that wasn't allowing me that privilege.

I do realize, there are those out there that do lie, those who just want a med and attention. For one day, I wish they could feel what we do and realize how lucky they are to not hurt.

Good article.

prove our pain....there are no 'standards' for pain, it's subjective. Your pain isn't MY pain and I may describe my pain better or worse than you do.

For comparison, look at how cancers are 'staged'. There are categories and sub-categories for each type. Cancers can be put in 'boxes' so to speak, so far, I've seen little 'medical' categorizing at all regarding pain.

Judging pain and pain levels is more akin to judging dog shows...best of breed-where each different breed is compared it that breed's standard. All very subjective. Pains don't even have type 'standards'. Thus OUR vocabularies describing it vary quite widely.

Taking it a step further, how do WE as patients advocate for the consistent articulation of pain[s], [thus weeding out the abusers], and encourage such 'whole body' approaches? I would think that educating those near us, then the wider public, while working with teh medical community, individually and as a whole, to be more clear on pain and it's managements. Right now approaches appear to be fragmented and un-connected. IMHO - j

Sad but true.....pain killers = addicts
Who will do anything for a 'fix'.
First trick is to lie to the docs @ the ER
then to the docs in their offices to get
the Rx's they want.
IMHO, attention is farther down on the list.

HeyJoe,
That was a good read, Its a shame most folks don't have a PCP like I do. Last week I was put on another drug Cymblata at my suggestion. I am also taking Lyrica and Tramadol, but the pain though not spreading is requiring increased amounts of medicine. He gave me a thirty day supply and wants me to keep him informed as how its working. My visits usually last over an hour and he seems to have a grasp of what pain is all about. His parting words are always "we're gonna keep working on this (PN)." I still believe the varicella-zoster virus that lies dormaint in the nerves has alot to do with many cases of PN, but is an unproven theory.

HeyJoe,
This is a really great article and offers some genuine hope and encouragement for the future if more and more Drs become educated to the disease, chronic pain as it seems Drs Gordon and Kern have already.

Reminds me of a very fine movie some years ago, "The Doctor" starring Wiliam Hurt who typified the medical community as a brilliant and wonderfully skilled surgeon w/ absolutely no bedside manner or empathy for his patients. To make a long story short he contracted throat cancer, became a patient in his own hopsital and was subjected to the same nonesense, coldness, impersonal treaments, long waits, and aggravations that we have all dealt with routinely.

A dying young woman w/ a brain tumor finally got through to him to become a more empathetic physician. In the last scenes of the movie Hurt's residents were told to strip, don' patient gowns, were assigned particular diseases and maladies. A noteworthy comment was that the residents/patients were real people not "the gallbladder in 403" or the "MI in the ICU" and were subjected to the same treatments, tests, waits, etc that they would prescribe for their future patients. I think like Darlindeb25 noted that if more Drs experienced the pain and the tests as we do the standards of care would change dramatically.

Thanks for this post - hopefully more pain centers like Wasser will develop.
Alkymst