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Find it hard to slow down?  In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, is it clear you’re zipping along, nibbling carrots?

Sometimes people who are more energetic and driven find it hard to learn relaxation techniques or to slow down enough to rest.  In the long run, people who are willing to push themselves a bit do better in dealing with chronic pain, I think.  However, it can really help to learn to balance your drive forward with taking enough time to let your body recharge and heal.

Healthskills:  Skills for Health Living had a great post recently about using walking meditation for people who find it hard to slow down.  Another case in which I’ve suggested walking meditation is for people whose pain increases when they’re still.  This probably happens because of less stimulation to their brains when they’re quiet - there’s nothing to compete with pain signals.

Even bunnies rest, right?

How about for you?  Have you tried walking meditation?  If it works for you, let us know why you think it helps you.

Thanks to Boltandfrolic for the photo at Flickr.

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What if the benefits of the relaxation exercises you do, such as breathing, visualization, guided imagery and hypnosis, continued 24/7?  That would be pretty great, right?

I’d guess most people would say they hope/expect to get some benefit – say reduced pain – during their meditation practice.  If this benefit continues outside of those 15 or 30 minutes, that’s extra.  However, another way to look at meditation practices (and possibly other relaxation exercises) is that your period of “practice” – those 15 or 30 minutes – is just that… practice.  And what you’re practicing for is the other 23 ½ hours of each day – and the rest of your life.

A reader, Kelli B., wrote in with these comments.  She says, in summary:

These thoughts were spurred by someone with chronic pain who said that “the pain goes away when I meditate, but returns when I stop meditating.”  I’ve noticed that people often assume that meditation is a special activity, one largely separate from the moment-by-moment unfolding of one’s day.

A fairly standard element of a deeper meditation practice is to aim to meditate throughout all daily activities.  Meditation continues while performing other tasks, and in fact, sometimes makes them easier and less stressful.

What I’d like to offer is the following perspective.  It isn’t a matter of meditating several times a day, but of aiming to treat whatever arises in one’s daily, moment-to-moment life, as an element arising in a meditation.  This can be pain, or emotions such as anger, sadness, anxiety, etc.

Many meditation traditions emphasize that the purpose of the separate meditation “sitting” is actually to develop mindfulness for the express purpose of eventually expanding the practice of mindfulness throughout one’s daily activities, and all of one’s moments.   The most familiar examples of this are probably the Zen tradition’s treatment of simple daily work activities and personal relationships as platforms for meditation.

Meditation might be a much deeper resource for people when pursued more deeply and in an ongoing manner.

Readers, what do you think?  Do you see your meditation and other practices as experiences with specific boundaries - or - as an approach to life?

You might also like:

• 2 types of mindfulness
• How mindfulness helps with chronic pain
• Breathing exercises
• Visualization
• Guided imagery
• Relaxation exercises

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Today’s topic for Monday Chat:

Do you think there are any silver linings to your having a pain condition?

Thanks to Ifijay on Flickr for the photo.

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* * * * *

Welcome to June’s Pain-Blog Carnival… the best articles of June!  This month’s theme is summer/vacation.  Lots of other great reading here, too.  Enjoy!

Vacations can mean flying by plane.  Spine Health gives us 5 tips to make flying pain-free.

Rhymes with Migraine share some tips she’s learned from her own travels to make the journey more pleasant and do-able.

Don’t want to fly… or even leave home?  Somebody Heal Me writes about vacationing at home.   “Living well with chronic health conditions is all about adapting things to work for you.  By staying home, you can get the relaxation you crave, while also accommodating your health needs.”

Even if you don’t work or if you need to take things easy because of pain, you still need a vacation.  Working with Chronic Illness tells us the wise reasons why.

Summer also means having extra time for reading.  Here are some other great submissions:

Migraine Chick shares with us some rules about living with migraines and chronic pain that she’s learned the hard way.  How many can you relate to?!?

I’m in so much pain.  Fighting Fatigue writes about the risks of faking it - pretending nothing’s wrong, when you’re really in a lot of pain.

If you have to stay in bed, you can still be productive.  Read 75 great suggestions at Sitting Up is for Suckers: Tools, Tips and Hacks to Work from Bed.

The Back Pain Blog educates us about the difference between acute and chronic pain, and what morning neck pain could be.

Psychology of Pain writes about a new website, Pain Explained, which has info for both patients and healthcare providers.

Natural Pain Relief shares some natural products that might potentially help neuropathy (nerve pain).

Thanks to everyone for their submissions!
July’s Pain-Blog Carnival will be Wednesday, July 30
Deadline for submissions:  Friday, July 25.
Send in your submissions here.

This week’s Grand Rounds, a medical blog carnival, is hosted at Shrink Rap.  Check out the technologically-amazing interactive iPhone they created.

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Do you ever say to yourself that you should write a book, an article or a blog?

81% of us do (according to this funny NY Times article by Joseph Epstein).  However, few run with that thought and actually do so.  Nickie Coby is the exception – she actually self-published Nickie’s Nook:  Sharing the Journey.  I recently asked to review her book, and I thought it was inspiring.

Nickie, a college student, is the author at Nickie’s Nook, a blog about her experience with pain, sight-impairment and living.  I found her book really interesting and enjoyable to read.  It talks about her pain condition (RSD), how she copes, and the challenges she experiences because of pain.  Nickie is also blind, and she relates what that experience is like, too.

Having had severe pain myself, I’m always curious about someone else’s pain experience, seeing how they deal with the challenge of pain.  My sight, at least with glasses, is fine, so reading about the challenges of sight-impairment was an eye-opener (no pun intended).

Nickie writes about the challenges of coping with pain and blindness and functioning fully in our society, attending college, working with her guide dog, independence and interdependence (great writing), and spirituality.  As a physician and blogger, I was also interested in her chapters on access to both healthcare and the web for people with disabilities.

When someone is challenged in some way by disabilities, there’s a risk in describing the person’s story as “inspiring,” because it can seem condescending.  So I hope that’s not what I’m communicating between the lines here.  I was truly struck by Nickie’s courage and perseverance.  And the book was a fun read – humorous and engaging.

I’d recommend the book to anyone interested in these topics (you can even download it).  Stop over at her blog, too - lots of great reading there, as well.  Thanks, Nickie, for writing your book as well as sharing it with How to Cope with Pain!

Nickie’s book is one of the prizes here at How to Cope with Pain!

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How about some prizes for participating on How to Cope with Pain?

I’ve gathered quite a few books, movies, meditations CD’s, etc., while evaluating these products for you.  So I’d like to give them away to you!

You just have to write something for How to Cope with Pain to share with other readers.  This can be a guest post, a short article or story, or even just a question for Monday Chat.  The topic can be anything related to pain, including:

• your own pain condition
• what you’ve learned from coping with pain
• what your best coping techniques are
• a question for Monday Chat

Whatever you’d like to share.  Don’t be modest or shy, or feel you have nothing to say.  I’ll pick my favorite submissions over the next month (deadline, 7/20) and publish them over the summer.  I’ll contact the winners to see what reward you’d like.  You can send in as many submssions as you’d like.  Your prizes could include:

• Life Disrupted:  Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties, by Laurie Edwards.  (To be published 6/08)
• Nickie’s Nook:  Sharing the Journey, By Nickie Coby (see review coming Monday)
• Living With Fibromyalgia:  A Journey of Hope and Understanding, a film by Daneen Akers and Stephen Eyer about Fibromyalgia
• A symptom tracker product from SoundTells
• A meditation CD from Meditation Society
• … plus more!

Send in your submissions here.

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If you’re in pain, why not try a video game, playing a sports or fighting game?

Researchers have shown that video games are a great distraction, resulting in reduced pain levels.  A really interesting website, Futurist Speaker, described a study which looked at which types of games reduce pain best.  This reminds me of using the Wii, virtual reality, and juggling to both reduce pain and distract patients from pain.  You might enjoy some of the other articles on Futurist Speaker – really interesting stories about what’s new in a wide variety of fields.

Reminder:  The deadline for your June Pain-Blog Carnival submission is 6/20. 

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I’m back after vacation… HI!

Today’s topic for Monday Chat: Is the summer better or worse for you?

Sometimes heat, and a slower pace in summer, help people with pain. On the other hand, for some, heat and high humidity increase pain.

So are your symptoms better or worse this time of year?

Reminder:  The deadline for your June Pain-Blog Carnival submission is 6/20. 

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I’ll be off on vacation for the next few weeks, so I’m inviting you to relax and enjoy these May Pain-Blog Carnival articles while I’m gone.

Rest Ministries offers…
8 Signs You May Not Need a Support Group For Your Illness
and
10 Tips to Be Sure Your Illness Support Group Isn’t Depressing

Andrea’s Buzzing About offers…   In Which I Am Stiff, which wonders when we’re comparing ourselves to “normal,” it might be better to use a “personal-normal.”

Fighting Fatigue offers…
2 Athletes with CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) Dream of Gold
and
Blood Pressure Cuff Pain & Fibromyalgia

The Migraine Girl offers…
Tired of Being Tired.  “Lately I’ve felt inexplicably sleepy all my waking hours.  What could be going on?”
and
URGENT:  A Petition.  A proposed law which would require the use of fluorescent lights - one of the most common triggers for migraines – instead of (non-pain-inducing) incandescent bulbs is discussed.

Working with Chronic Illness offers…
Should You Disclose Your Chronic Illness at Work?  3 Things to Consider
and
Questions With No Answers, which looks at the challenges of having both a chronic illness and a career.
 
A Chronic Dose offers…
Chronic Pain: Class and Cost Distinctions, which looks at pain and class.
and
Education, Disrupted, a look at the challenges of chronic illness in the college setting. 

CRPS- RSD A Better Life offers…
Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Pain
and
Reduce Pain through Mindful Meditation

And finally, Psychology of Pain offers…   The Pain Gap, a look at the Princeton study which showed those with lower income and less education fair worse with pain.

Thanks to everyone for their submissions!
June’s Pain-Blog Carnival will be Wednesday, June 25
Deadline for submissions:  Friday, June 20.  Theme:  Summer/Vacation
Send in your submissions here.

Thanks to Mode for the photo.  And here are 2 carnival links:  The Happy Hospitalist, who’s hosting a Grand Rounds, and The Migraine Girl, who’s hosting June’s Headache and Migraine carnival.

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Each year when I renew my malpractice insurance policy, they look at my website and blog to suggest various ways to decrease liability risk.  This time they suggested these items:

1.  Take off all advertising.  Any advertising on a site may be mistaken for an endorsement by me of a product, in which case I might have some liability for the products advertised.  Thus, taking them off eliminates that risk.

Advertising on medical sites is also a potential conflict of interest.  By accepting advertising and thus making money in this way, it hypothetically might tempt me to advertise and make money from products of questionable quality.

2.  If I don’t take off all advertising, they recommended putting it at the bottom of the pages, below a bold line with a statement such as “Below is advertising.  I do not endorse these products.”

3.  Have a policy about confidentiality and advertising on the site.  This is to increase “transparency” of sites, so devious practices such as collecting email addresses for other reasons, or making ads look like articles, aren’t possible.

4.  Identify myself.  Again, this is to increase “transparency,” and so readers can be sure that when I call myself a doctor, I am actually one.

5.  Stop any individual contact with readers.  “Practicing medicine” online is full of problems, so individual suggestions - which could be construed as medical advice - are discouraged.

These suggestions put me in a bit of a pickle.

Re #1 and #2, Advertising
Advertising pays for the costs of hosting my sites, the annual domain registration, and my technology partner who does all the background computer magic.  This lets me focus on writing the content of the blog.  Last year I figured that I made something like 1 cent for each hour I spent on my sites.

So having no advertising would mean I’d pay to provide what I consider a (hopefully!) helpful service.  This isn’t very attractive to me.

Also, it seems there is no way to make it 100% clear that any advertising is just that - purely advertising - and not connected to the articles nor endorsed.  While theoretically I could choose what advertising I accept, that would eliminate Google and other common forms of advertising, which automatically place ads on your sites.  Choosing ads would also require me to spend time reviewing potential ads – a time-intensive options that doesn’t appeal to me.  So it seems the no-advertising way is the only practical thing to do.

Re #3, Policies
I will be putting up a confidentiality policy, as this seems fairly straight forward to do.

Re #4, Anonymity
I made a purposeful decision not to identify myself on my blog for several reasons.  First, I’m not interested in getting referrals to my medical practice through my sites.  I’m writing solely to get more pain management information out to help people.  Second, I occasionally talk about my own pain condition, and would prefer to do that anonymously.  It lets me speak more freely.  Lastly, although I’m very careful about patient confidentiality, I think having an anonymous blog adds in an extra protective layer of confidentiality when I talk about general patient-related issues.

Re #5, Interaction with readers
I can certainly see both sides of this issue.  I would agree that practicing medicine through the sites wouldn’t be advisable for many reasons.  However, I think I can make general comments in response to readers’ comments or questions, without crossing over the line into “practicing medicine.”

Overall, while I understand the reason behind some of the limits mentioned above, it saddens me to have to make some of these “either/or” choices.  I think implementing some of them would lessen the effectiveness of my blog.  So I’ll be considering my options to figure out what to do.  While I still can ask :), any thoughts on these issues?

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