World movement for better pain treatment

Have you heard? There's a global movement going on! 


Pain specialists and leaders of medical organizations from all over the world got together in Miami just two months ago, to sign this declaration, the Declaration of Miami - to promote better pain treatment all over the world, and to guarantee pain relief as a human right!


Here is the basic text of the declaration:


Presently, there is still limited access to adequate treatment of acute and chronic pain in many parts of the world. Governments and even healthcare professionals are not sufficiently aware of chronic pain as a health problem. Many healthcare professionals are not educated and familiar with best practice pain medicine. 
It is the right of any human individual to have easy access to adequate pain management. There is a need for generally available information about proper options for pain relief and it is the obligation of governments and healthcare systems to provide financial, personnel, and structural resources to achieve these goals and to guarantee adequate pain management as a human right.

What can you do? 

1. Inform your physician!


2. Sign the petition at change-org here and spread the word to your friends, family and fellow patients.

Video interview - coping with chronic pain

I stumbled across this great video interview, where Jennifer Grey shares her experience on coping with chronic pain. She says som every useful things about treatment, structuring your coping mechanisms and how to communicate with your doctor to get the best help possible.

She recommends using the Three Rs :

• Research - Get as much information about your pain as possible
• Record - Keep a pain journal, find out your pain patterns & triggers, how does your pain act & react?
• Rehearse - Practice talking about this before going in to your doctors appointment

Raise awareness!

I am in the process of starting up a project to increase awareness about chronic pain, and need to get in touch with individuals based in Norway who can participate by sharing their experiences living with chronic pain.

For my norwegian readers, please read the text at diagnostisert.no and see if this is something you could be interested in - or if you possibly know someone who can participate.

Please share and spread, the more people we can connect, the better!

Hope for chronic pain patients

I've previously written about how chronic pain changes the brain and especially effects memory centers of the brain. Now new research has shown that not only is this pain treatable, but these changes in the brain can actually be reversed, I read a great post on Bad Boy Science, here is an excerpt:


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"... chronic pain is often defined as pain that lasts longer than the expected time of healing.

One of the reasons pain persists is that the brain re-wires itself to change pain perception. This is known as ‘Central Sensitization’. The changes are actually significant enough that they can be detected through brain imaging! ¹

It’s almost like a ‘pain memory’. Like an over-reaction of your brains job to protect you from danger by giving you pain. It can make safely moving in a certain way cause pain, because your brain remembers that being a painful movement before.

But don’t let this worry you. Fascinating (and exciting) new research has shown that not only is this pain treatable, but these changes in the brain can actually be reversed!

(...)

Hope for People with Chronic Pain

This is good news for people who used to think: “well <insert pain treatment here> only works temporarily and then the pain comes back, so what’s the point?” There is a point! It can eventually become permanent relief.

The message is this: hang in there. The worlds scientists are hard at work figuring out the brain. People are beginning to appreciate pain and it’s complexity.

For now, do whatever you find helpful for your pain.

Don’t be afraid of pain. Keep moving stay active. Reduce stress and anxiety in any way you can. Don’t let pain be the first thing on your mind. Enjoy your life.

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Read the whole article here!

Join me on Pinterest

I love social media... It's an awesome way to gather inspiration and stay in touch, especially when you live with chronic disease or chronic pain which severely impacts your mobility.

Blogs, forums and different patient groups and communities can be great both for gathering information, learning about your condition, and sharing the understanding that you may not receive from your immediate family.

Recently I started using Pinterest, and I'm loving it! Pinterest is a new social media experience, which in contrast to many other new media sites actually has genuinely new functions. A picture says more than a thousand words they say... and with a Pinterest profile you organize and share images and links with people all over the worlds with a simple click.

Join me there and add the 365 Pain Free Days pinboard to keep sharing pain-free inspiration!