I almost want to put this one in my Duh File, where I put studies that cause a reaction from me like “Geez, no kidding!” But, I guess it has its merit. It’s just that the connection is so glaringly obvious to me and likely to the millions of people who live with chronic pain.

When you have chronic pain, how it’s managed, how it affects your life, and how you see it affects how you feel mentally and emotionally. If you see your pain as unchanging, as unbeatable, you may tend to give in to it, believing that you have no control over your pain. Pain can affect your quality of life. Read more

By Guest Blogger Patti G.

I don’t look like there’s anything wrong with me. If you saw me you wouldn’t know that I’m in pain. Everyday activities are challenging and I never know how my body will feel from one day to the next. Simple things, like laundry and dishes, become impossible some days, barely tolerable others.

I live with Fibromyalgia.

Image: istockphoto

I hurt my back in a fall eleven years ago. For many years I dealt with trying to learn how to live with the chronic pain from it. I tried everything; medication, injections, physical therapy. Nothing helped; my doctors finally told me I’d have to live with it.

About five years ago my pain changed. It moved through my body, it moved beyond my back. It felt all-consuming. Some doctors told me that it was ‘referred’ pain, my back still the cause of it. Others told me that it was in my head.

A move brought a new doctor. One who listened carefully to me, beyond just my medical records. And he was able to diagnose the Fibromyalgia. It was both frightening and a relief. It was nice to have an answer, to know I was right thinking there was something else going on. But it was frightening getting a diagnosis that had no solution. I’m glad it’s not more serious, it’s not life threatening. But it has changed my life.

There are medications out now for Fibromyalgia, unfortunately they didn’t work for me. Over the last couple of years I’ve learned to live with it, gained some coping skills that give me the best chance of functioning as normally as I can.

The most important thing, and the hardest, was accepting it. I hurt and that’s not going to change. I listen to my body, if I push it too far it will be worse. I’ve learned what time of day I feel best and I schedule myself accordingly. I’ve made my surroundings as accommodating as I can–everything from what shelf towels are on to how I sit at my computer.

It’s easiest at home; it gets harder out in public. I don’t look ill and I’m not elderly. It’s hard asking for help lifting things. I’ve gotten more than a few raised eyebrows. I look like I should be able to lift a case of water or put the groceries in the car. I didn’t ask for help for a long time, it felt like giving in to something I didn’t want to admit had so much control over me. I learned the hard way, lifting that case of water made me hurt more. My mind needed to accept it to help my body feel the best it can.

Fibromyalgia is a challenge, but it can be manageable. With acceptance and awareness I function better now than I did when I was first diagnosed. I have good days and bad days, but now I feel like I have some control over all of them.

For further information about Fibromyalgia, check the Mayo Clinic website.

Living with chronic pain, non-cancer pain, often causes other problems besides the pain itself. These problems can range from physical issues, such as overusing one side of the body to protect the other, to psychological issues, such as depression, to social issues, such as isolation.

Chronic pain is also extremely difficult to treat in most cases. Acute pain is caused - usually - by an identifiable source and is fixable. This includes a broken bone, an incision from surgery, a toothache. But chronic pain is not as easily identified, not as specific, and often not fixable.

A new study, published in the latest issue of JAMA, has found that people living with chronic pain who took part in a collaborative care approach (patient and clinician education with symptom monitoring and feedback to the primary care physician) showed improvements in lowering the intensity of pain and pain-related disability, more so than did patients who received so-called “usual care.” This, depending on the type of pain, usually involves medications, maybe surgery, physiotherapy, and so on.

This finding was also seen among patients who had depression along with or as a result of their chronic pain.

You can read more about this interesting study in the journal’s press release, Program helps improve management of chronic pain.

Do you live with chronic pain? What have you tried to help it?

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Image: Stock.xchng.com

Specialists in diabetes, neurology, pain management and rehabilitation have begun a ground breaking study of peripheral nerve surgery to help patients with long-standing pain and numbness in patients with diabetic neuropathy.

About one-third of patients with diabetic neuropathy have overlying compression of certain nerves in the leg that may worsen the pain and cause loss of sensation at the bottom of the foot. Several studies have demonstrated that the nerves may increase in diameter in diabetic patients. In this study, UT Southwestern investigators are hoping to show that by releasing pressure from the specific nerves of these patients, pain may be decreased and sensation improved.

Similar to carpal tunnel surgery- this surgery would alleviate the pressure on the inflamed nerve area and decrease the pain and suffering that these patients have to live with on a daily basis. The scientists and doctors leading the study are hopeful that they will be able to restore the protective sensation thus decreasing the risk for cuts, ulcers and ultimately amputations.

via Southwestern Medical Center