I went to an interesting lecture here today...

http://www.bath.ac.uk/pain-management/

and have a possibility of doing my placement there!!! What do you all think? It means changing my dissertation title - but could be interesting!

Just not sure I want to do pain psychology - I get too frustrated with myself! I might go insane working with chronic painers!! (but then again, I do know what they are going through!). It will mean remaining in the UK - but as I am slowly going downhill and now have electric hoists and all that going in I am likely to have to stay here - I don't think that anyone will agree to me having all my equipment and carers shipped over to the US or NZ. Grrr... Apparently it is ok if you just need somewhere wheelchair accessible, but add a quad to the mix and everything gets screwed up!!

Oh well, any thoughts appreciated (do you think I would be a good PM psychologist?, do you feel I would manage a year before kicking or biting one of the bloody people at the unit?!)

Love

Frogga
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Hi Frogga!! "Yes, I do think you would be a GREAT PM psychologist"!! God uses people like us to give other's hope, experiences that we go through, etc. I say.. GO FOR IT BABE!!! Love, Desi

Frogga,
I agree, you would be a great one. Nothing is worse than talking to people who have no idea of what you are going thru. Not only that, but after talking to you some might stop feeling sorry for themselves and get up and try to hang in there. (not sure if I wrote that right, but I hope you know what I mean.) Just started the drugs 2 nites ago, and they are leaving me a little thick in the head. I don't know when they settle down, or what to expect so far as the effect goes. But anyway, go for it...I've always told my kids that this isn't a rehersal for life, this is opening nite. (one daughter is getting her masters in the fine arts in stage management. the other one is getting her BS in Biology. she wants to be a pharmacist who works with a dr for meds and pain managment) GOod luck
Mary

Frogga...congrats!!! If you wouldn't make a great pm psychologist than I don't know who would. I think you would be a great inspiration to your patients. Look how many of us have been helped by you. So, you get a definite "YES" from me.

Heya

Thanks everyone!! I just wasn't sure about whether I could do it - I don't admire all the approaches used by this unit, but I am definetly going to go for the placement! Who knows... in a couple of years I could be telling you all to drop the meds and just practise the odd bit of mindfullness!!! LOL

Thanks again!!!

Love

Frogga xxxxxxxxx

Hey Frogga....Life without these mind numbing meds....what a wonderful thought....that brought a smile to my face. ( I needed that) Jeannie

Yes! Frogga, what an amazing opportunity.

For those who don't know, the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases is a very highly respected establishment in the UK and they do lots of research into chronic pain issues. That, and hey, not a bad shack to work out of, huh?

And I would imagine you could produce a highly original dissertation, since you have rather a unique perspective on the subject, lol.

Brill! all the best

Dear Frogga -

There is a great demand for highly qualified pain psychologists, at least here in Los Angeles. In know that at most of the larger hospitals offering pain clinics, they have "pain psychologists" on staff, but in my experience, they just tend to be psychologists who happened to get jobs in pain clinics, thereby rendering them "pain psychologists" ipso facto, or ipse dixit, if you get my drift.

By far and away, the best consultation I received was a single 2-hour appointment with a lady who was also a bona fide analyst, back in the summer of 2002. I told her that I had been advised by a guy at THE MAJOR PRIVATE HOSPITAL IN LOS ANGELES that there was nothing I could do about outbursts of anger that I was directing at random third-parties - sales clerks and the like - that it "just went with the territory" to which she basically said "B.S." and handed me a card of a lady (now one of my best friends) who taught Jon Kabat-Zinn's program of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR, see http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/srp/index.aspx) and since then baby, it's been Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and I've never looked back!

Put another way, there is suffering, it's cause and what any of us can do about it. And I can think of no higher calling than dispensing that one professionally.

Mike

Hi Frogga,

You will be fantastic. Maybe we should all make appointments with you. Hugs, Roz xxx

Heya,

THANKS!! Thanks for the confidence vote! I am feeling alot more settled about it now and it is sounding quite interesting and, dare I say it, fun! It will be bizzare though working with pain, rhuematology and other consultants every day if I do get the placement! (be weird for them as well!). My main fear is that those that don't understand my RSD will attempt to "help", when in fact I just want to be left alone with it and stop all the "fiddlers" that make things a hundred times worse!! (like my spine block which went wrong after stupid doctor got the anesthetic wrong and then got the block wrong. It didn't help at all pain wise and it destroyed my spine and legs).

Although the placement won't start until September 2008 we have to start planning them really soon - so HOPEFULLY I will have a chance of working there!

Thanks all!!

Love Frogga xxxxxxxx