September is “Pain Awareness Month”
Pain Facts
The following information is a combination of self-realizations after 21-1/2 years of living with chronic low back pain and from the U.S. Pain Foundations web site (http://uspainfoundation.org/about-us.html, 9/13/14). The one piece of advice (I post this a lot) I can give to someone with chronic pain of any sort is to track your pain. With just a simple pen and paper or as elaborate as an app similar to those I use, “CheckMyPain,” “Med” and Pain Journal. There are numerous websites and apps available with loads of information, please check the website to see how accurate they are with their information, send an email and see what the return address is, check recent dates of articles posted, are they asking for money to sign in, all of these am more can help you weed out the faulty sites. As for apps, try, try and try again until you find the ones that work for you, what works for you may not work in helping with my pain. Once you have this information you can now track when, how often, what preceded the pain (did you just mow, wash the car, walk the local flea market, etc.) This will let you know what to do and when to do it, to best control when your pain happens, or how bad it will be. Please take this information and any other to any and all appointments its
- Chronic pain affects over 100 million Americans* (1 out of 3 people).
- Chronic pain can be classified in over 100 different categories.
- There is over 100 different forms of arthritis alone
- Chronic can be a disease in itself
- Lose of work days, hours of missed work and lower wages are all included in the health care cost of chronic pain
- Chronic pain health care cost can run $560-$635 billion every year
- Even with the proper treatment chronic pain may not be 100% effective
- More people are affected by chronic pain than diabetes, cancer and heart disease combined
Even with treatment, many people still do not have a diagnosis of what’s causing their pain - Few schools have chronic pain as a comprehensive training curricula
- Self-management of ones chronic pain including, problem solving, tracking ones pain, finding ways to cope, educating oneself – all add to reducing ones pain and improving function
- The more one knows about their pain, the less pain and better lifestyle one is likely to have.
I hope the information in this blog will be able to provide some sort of comfort to someone who has just been diagnosed with chronic pain and I am sorry for that. I am not going to say it will be easy but I will say you are not alone. Find a web site that deals with chronic pain, either your specific pain or just a general sit that deals with many forms of chronic pain such as the following sites which are a starting point and they can either connect you with people in your situation, or offer ideas of where to look. It may take a while for you to locate one you feel comfortable with, but you will find it. Happy Pain Awareness Month everyone.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER You must not rely on the information on this website as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about any medical matter you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you think you may be suffering from any medical condition you should seek immediate medical attention. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment because of information on this website.
Namaste’
Richard K.
Authors Bio:
Richard is a Tri-Fecta caregiver, along with his wife he cares for himself, with Chronic Back Pain which he’s had for 21 years. He cares for his brother in-law,Robert who lives with him and who has been dealing with Epilepsy his entire life. He also advocates for his mother who has various cardiac related issues, severe hearing loss and other medical issues. You can read about his experiences with chronic pain and how he deals with his mothers and brother in-law’s issues on PickYourPain.org or at Caregiving.com. He is also involved in several of Caregiving.com’s support groups and chat rooms, he is co-host of an internet based radio show pertaining to caregiving. Richard is also a patient adviser, board member for Intake.me which is working to improve the intake process at medical facilities. Richard has three adult children who despite them having to deal with his medical issues, he says, “They have turned out better than I’d hoped for.”
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