Hey everyone,

I've been meaning to share this too. This video of Stanford pain doctor Sean Mackey is really awesome. Stanford is on the forefront of pain research and does a lot of work concerning fMRI and brain mapping related to pain and brain changes. He discusses neuroplasticity and gives an in depth look at ketamine, LDN and Botox (both sympathetic and peripheral use). The neuroplasticity findings are quite interesting and validate my personal belief that the more we focus on things besides our pain and suffering the better off we are and the more likely our nervous systems are to normalize some.

At the end he discusses a study on the the ameliorating effects of love on pain. I knew it was healing!

Overall, this video is both informative and entertaining to watch. Mackey is a funny and engaging academic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo1UNea_tfQ

Thanks for sharing, makes me even more excited about (hopefully, not too far off) eventually getting seen at Stanford! My appointment with the worker's comp lawyer is on Friday, and that's his goal - move my care to Stanford. Since my current PM doc's in full agreement and has requested this twice.... well one can hope!

A Warm Hello to All!

Littlepaw, thanks so much for sharing this video.
I enjoy Dr. Mackey's teaching style.
Great coverage of various treatment approaches.

Yes, quite a fun, informative and a very important study on the effects of love and the role of dopamine.

Dr. Mackey encourages us to do things in which we find pleasure and/or joy.

It's easy to get into habits of isolating and avoiding "too much" stimuli when in severe pain. I need to remember to counter this inclination with pushing myself a little more in order to do some of the things which still bring me joy!

Thanks again!
Love all around!

I have always thought that one of the things that has been best for me is that I have a great support system with my boyfriend and his family, the people here, and the people on a cross stitch forum I run. This has kept me from becoming isolated...and of course my little girl has brought so much joy into my life since I got pregnant.

Distractions play a big part in my pain management routine for the past 4 years. That's part of why it was so important for me to go back to a job I loved and why I want to badly to get back there now. When all you do it sit all day and THINK about the pain...the worse the pain is...at least for me. I need other things to occupy my mind. It's all about balancing all these things to give myself the best quality of life possible...because if I don't then why am I bothering to hang around in this world? I am not my pain...RSD doesn't own me.

That said...these are all learned things that take time to master...and not everyone has a support system like I have...which makes it so much more important to seek out and maintain any relationships you DO have. All relationships take effort on both sides and while often we find that the people we thought were our friends aren't there in our time of need we also need to take the time to continue to nurture those relationships as best we can despite our own struggles. In this age of the internet, smart phones, and technology...that has made some of this much easier...but it's still up to us to put that effort in. It's hard...very hard sometimes...but so worth it too.

Got a little off topic there...but thank you for sharing Littlepaw!