New Writer on Hurt.com - Marion

Welcome Marion to the Hurt.com writing team!

Name:  Marion

About me: I'm in my mid-fifties and live with my husband on the Eastside of Lake Washington in the Seattle area. I’m a former academic researcher and now I work as a writer and volunteer. I'm passionate about helping people come through challenges and create better lives.

Experiences with Pain: Fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, knee and ankle injuries, osteoarthritis, back injury, Sjogren's Syndrome 

Before I had cancer, I did a lot of hiking, backpacking and rockhounding. I also enjoyed a martial art, armored medieval foot combat re-creation.  Over the years I had repeated ankle and knee injuries, plus the occasional back injury. I've re-conditioned and healed a great deal, but I have to be careful to stay in shape and not aggravate old problems. Staying flexible and maintaining good balance is important to me.

Around age 30 I began to have trouble with dry eyes, eventually diagnosed as Sjogren's Syndrome.  Although my case is mild it requires that I actively manage dry eyes, nose and mouth and sometimes other symptoms. People with Sjogren's also have a higher risk of lymphatic cancer. 

At age 35, I was diagnosed with Stage III Hodgkin Lymphoma.  I underwent a chemotherapy regimen called ABV-MOPP.  Thankfully, the treatment cured the cancer, but left me with fibromyalgia, osteoporosis and peripheral neuropathy in hands, arms and feet.  Managing these and other aftereffects of treatment is a life-long commitment. I walk and do yoga to stay in shape, and still go hiking in summer.

Osteoarthritis runs in my mother’s family and I have it in my neck, knee and hands.  My sister also has fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis.

I choose to manage my pain as much as I can with alternative therapies because I tend to experience side effects from drugs. Fortunately, there are many other ways to approach chronic pain!

Why Hurt.com: Making a commitment to Hurt.com lets me share what's worked for me, so that the knowledge can help others get a head start.  Learning to work with practitioners, make lifestyle changes, engage with remedies and treatments and understand research is powerful "medicine" for managing chronic pain.  

Favorite Pain Management Web Sites:

http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/default.htm

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/pain/chronic.htm

http://www.sjogrens.org/home/about-sjogrens-syndrome/living-with-sjogrens

Acute Pain vs. Chronic Pain: Colin's Story

Soccer Injury, Aquila, FlickrIf this seems like a simple topic, forgive my naivete. But I believe this is a very critical distinction to make and one that I failed to for a long time. This distinction is important because it can define how you are treated by medical providers and  in turn dictate how you perceive it your injury/condition.

Chronic pain/injury/disease is something the progresses slowly, develops over time, and becomes a systemic issue often gathering momentum as it progresses. The cause and effect relationship is generally unclear.

Acute pain/injury/disease is something that has a rapid onset, short duration and often times (but not always) a result of a specific impact or traumatic event to the body. The cause and effect relationship is generally pretty clear. 

These are generalizations of course, and there is much more nuance to be had. But for me, getting to these basic classifications more quickly would have gone a long way.

As an 18 year old I was injured playing soccer when I collided with a goalkeeper. To spare you the melodramatic details the end result was a trip to the Emergency Room, a referral to an Orthopaedic Doctor and  a little physical therapy. There were some mumblings about hyperextension, cervicalgia, and contusions but nothing definitive. I was supposed to be fine. Nothing was broken or dislocated and plus I was 18, an athlete and in the prime of my health. 

Unfortunately this has not been the case. I write this seven years later with much worse pain than at initial onset and an unclear future. But one thing I see looking backward is a fundamental misunderstanding of chronic vs acute pain. 

For years I pursued treatments that were more appropriate for acute problems. I told people that this specific injury was the source of my problems. I saw the same chiropractors and therapists over and over. I wondered why I wasn’t healing. I blamed myself for not healing. I wondered how such an innocuous seeming injury could be so devastating. And I went in circles. 

Now maybe I would have either way. But I do think that a considerable amount of time and energy was wasted on the wrong treatments and incorrect methods of thought. I now think of my problem as something that preexisted the “injury” and the “injury” simply gave an opportunity for the problem to manifest. I don’t advocate that everyone run out and demand some type of a diagnosis and throw around somewhat arbitrary terms like “chronic”.  But a clear understanding of an injury or a medical condition is imperative. 

My advice? Do a lot of research, don’t accept everything a doctor tells you, advocate for yourself, get multiple opinions, stay positive and most of all listen to your body.  

Which brings me full circle to writing for Hurt.com. I am writing not from the perspective of an expert or someone with all the answers. If I had some type of panacea I would gladly give it to all of you, right now. Sadly I don’t have a panacea. I am simply someone who’s been through a lot and wants to share in the hope that my experiences can help others.

-Colin

New Guide to the Diagnosis, Management and Treatment of Back Pain

The Ultimate Pain Management Guide Hurt.com has published a new guide on the diagnosis, treatment and management of Back Pain.    

Topics covered include:

• Common causes of back pain
• How to prevent back pain
• How to diagnose back pain
• Specific conditions that cause back pain
• Traditional allopathic treatments for back pain
• Alternative treatments for back pain
• Surgical options for back pain

Check out our guide and let us know what you think.  The guide will continue to evolve as we develop more content.

Picture from ttcopley on Flickr