Long Time, No Posts

I’ve been gone so long that I doubt any­one reads this any­more. If the feed is still in anyone’s read­ers, they’ll just be stunned to see some­thing come through! I am still out here. I have notes all over the places where I’ve started writ­ing posts and then…something hap­pens. I get tired or dis­tracted or a develop a headache, it’s always something.

Or I write some­thing that really should have been a post, but it’s a com­ment on a mail­ing list or forum some­where. A lit­tle while later I’ll real­ize, “Hey, why didn’t I put that effort into the blog, where it wouldn’t be so ephemeral?”

So from now on, when a com­ment or ques­tion in one of those places trig­gers writ­ing, I’ll attempt to remem­ber to put it here, hop­ing I actu­ally fin­ish and entire thought. I would also appre­ci­ate input from any­one who is still read­ing (if you exist) as to any­thing you would like me to write about. That way I don’t feel as if I’m talk­ing to myself or worse, shout­ing into the void. If you want me to record this lit­tle things as pod­casts, say so!

August 19, 2011  Tags: writing  Posted in: Blogging  6 Comments

Long term opiate use safe; One woman’s experience with Savella

There are two great arti­cles from Karen Lee Richards in HealthCentral’s Chronic Pain Con­nec­tion newslet­ter today.

The first, Long-Term Opioid Therapy – What Are the Effects?, brings us the results of Dr. Forest Tennant's ground-breaking study. He evaluated 24 chronic pain patients from 30 to 79 years old who had been using opioids for 10 to 35 years, and "concluded that the significant improvements in quality of life and physical functioning from opioid therapy are so positive they outweigh any negative complications, which can be easily managed."

Almost all of the patients (22 of 24) said their pain had permanently decreased over time. And the vast majority (20 of 24) felt their opioids still provided the same relief as when they started treatment. All of the patients reported one or more functions or activities they can do now that they couldn't do prior to beginning opioid therapy (i.e., get out of bed everyday, take walks, shop or visit friends).

The article details the patients' diagnoses and gives further information, and I encourage you to read the rest of it. While the study was small and obviously needs to be repeated with a larger group, this is marvelous news, and I for one am very grateful for Dr. Tennant's work and the participation of his subjects.

I have to say that I find HealthCentral's sites to be generaly decent, but the Chronic Pain Connection is outstanding. I encourage you to visit and subscribe to the newsletter.

Next, in One Patient’s Expe­ri­ence with Savella for Fibromyal­gia, Richards brings us detailed feed­back from one of her con­tacts, Brenda, who has been tak­ing the new drug for seven weeks. Many of us have heard of Savella, but so few have had an oppor­tu­nity to try it or know any­one who have that this arti­cle is very help­ful in mak­ing a deci­sion as to whether or not to ask our physi­cians for it. After read­ing about Brenda’s advice regard­ing insur­ance expe­ri­ences, deal­ing with side effects, and pos­i­tive results, I for one will be talk­ing to my neu­rol­o­gist about a trial pack.

December 3, 2009  Tags: chronic pain, Forest Tennant, Karen Lee Richards, opiates, Savella  Posted in: Fibromyalgia, Pain, Resources, treatments  6 Comments

Do you have chronic myofascial pain (trigger points)?

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial PainTrig­ger points (TrPs) con­fuse many peo­ple. Peo­ple who suf­fer from Fibromyal­gia Syn­drome (FMS) have ten­der points that are used for diag­no­sis, not trig­ger points. TrPs can lead to Chronic Myofas­cial Pain (CMP). Try­ing to explain both of them is really beyond me, but Devin Star­lanyl does a great job of mak­ing all of it clear. Her web site is great, but believe me, her books are even better!

The Trigger Point Therapy WorkbookIn any case, I have CMP and FMS. For the past week or so, I haven’t been able to move my neck much because of pain on the right side that referred down my arm and around to my chest. I know I’ve got scar tis­sue there in my neck, and com­pres­sion of a nerve between two of the ver­te­brae, but nor­mally I can move my neck through a full range of motion. I have no idea what happened—maybe I slept wrong? I don’t know, and I haven’t really been sleep­ing much in any case.

Body Back BuddyI had my monthly visit with my pain man­age­ment doc­tor today, and men­tioned the prob­lem. Right off, the PA asked if I wanted to try trig­ger point injec­tions. Within 15 min­utes, the pain was fad­ing. I was afraid it would come right back, but so far it hasn’t. By the time I got home, I was falling asleep in part due to the intense relief.

I def­i­nitely hope that I wouldn’t have any par­tic­u­lar place that is so painful next month, but I’ll def­i­nitely be ready to speak up about what­ever is most painful.

Tiger Tail MassagerIf your doc­tor doesn’t offer trig­ger point ther­apy for you, ask about it!

Knobble IIIf you’re sure that you have TrPs, you can also try treat­ing them your­self. For lay­men, the best book about TrPs is The Trig­ger Point Ther­apy Work­book by the late Clair Davies. I have a copy, and rec­om­mend it. I’ve found that it’s best used in con­junc­tion with a Ther­a­Cane, but it seems there are sev­eral other nice tools avail­able now, too.

BacknobberTheraCaneI found it nec­es­sary to have some­one else help me with the treat­ments, but they did work. They were more painful than the injec­tions, and you need to do them three times a day. On the other hand, they didn’t require a trip to the doc­tor or a pre­scrip­tion, and once you learn how to treat your­self you can do it when­ever you need it. Our for­mer house­mate helped me with the treat­ments, but I’m hop­ing that my part­ner will learn to do them. They do work!

August 19, 2009  Tags: chronic myofascial pain, CMP, trigger points  Posted in: Pain, treatments  One Comment

I’m alive! How about you?

It’s been an insanely long time since I gave this site its due. I sup­pose the real prob­lem with blog­ging about health prob­lems is that the peo­ple who know them best, by def­i­n­i­tion, have health prob­lems. I’d love to find some­one with whom to co-write this thing, so we could cover for each other!

Any­way, I had an insanely long bad period but I’m feel­ing bet­ter now. One fac­tor in the improve­ment was stop­ping Effexor XR, which I’d taken for years. I didn’t actu­ally do that on purpose—It was due to an insanely irre­spon­si­ble doc­tor who refused to see me because of a screw-up in his office’s pro­ce­dures, not any­thing I’d done wrong. I had to just stop tak­ing it, cold turkey, which led to seizures and other prob­lems. On the plus side, though, I’ve been far less drowsy and don’t need nearly as many hours of sleep as I did before. (I’m actu­ally expe­ri­enc­ing some insom­nia, which isn’t good, but it’s a change.)

Any­way, my Social Secu­rity dis­abil­ity claim was finally approved after over five years of wait­ing. They haven’t started pay­ing any­thing yet, but that’s sup­posed to hap­pen Real Soon Now. I have to tell you, though—the Medicare thing is a con­fus­ing maze of choices, obvi­ously designed by bureau­crats. You almost need to become a Medicare expert just to know what ben­e­fits are avail­able and how to get them!

For now, here’s a link to an arti­cle I found inter­est­ing:
Do Fibromyal­gia Pain Killers Make You a Likely Crime Victim?

I don’t agree with all of the advice. Peo­ple in Geor­gia have been arrested for hav­ing legit­i­mately pre­scribed med­ica­tions because the med­ica­tions weren’t in pre­scrip­tion con­tain­ers. It’s a real nui­sance to carry the bot­tles instead of just what you need, and it prob­a­bly does put us at greater risk for crime—but is it worth being arrested? That’s a Catch-22.

August 13, 2009  Tags: crime, medications, safety  Posted in: From the news  One Comment

Tips and Tools for Working From Bed

I’ve never encoun­tered this web site before, but it was linked from a blog car­ni­val, and the arti­cle is pretty good: Because Sit­ting up is for Suck­ers: 70+ Tools, Tips and Hacks to Work from Bed

I still miss my laptop!

And I have a pretty nice setup, but can’t help drool­ing at this: the Ergo­pod 500. I’m not about to look at the prices, though!

June 27, 2008  Tags: bedbound, computing, ergonomics  Posted in: employment, Resources  No Comments