posted August 13, 2011 02:24 PM            

Please folks,
tell me how you or anyone you know copes with chronic pain from just bad to the omg kind.
I want quality in my life.

posted August 14, 2011 11:18 AM            

Some of the statistics taken directly from the book..

Pain Outcomes in the Stress Clinic

Before looking further into the ways we can use mindfulness to work with pain, we will review some of the results obtained from our studies of people with chronic pain conditions in the stress clinic. These studies have shown that there is a dramatic reduction in the average level of pain during the eight-week training period in the clinic, as measured by a pain questionnaire called the McGill-Melzack Pain Rating Index (PRI). This is a reproducible finding. We see it in every class, year after year.

In one study 72 percent of the patients with chronic pain conditions achieved at least a 33 percent reduction on the PRI, while 61% of the pain patients achieved at least a 50 percent reduction. This means that the majority of people who came with pain experienced clinically significant reductions in their pain levels over the eight weeks they were practicing the meditation at home and attending weekly classes at the hospital.

In addition to pain, we looked at how much these people changed in terms of their negative body image (the degree to which they rated different parts of their body as problematic). We found that by the end of the program they perceived their bodies as approximately 30 percent less problematic. This implies that negative views and feelings about one's body, which are especially strong when people are limited in what they can do because of pain, can improve markedly in a short period of time.

At the same time, these people also showed a 30 percent improvement in the degree to which pain interfered with their ability to engage in the normal activities of daily living, such as preparing food, driving, sleeping, and sex. This improvement was accompanied by a sharp drop (55 percent) in negative mood states, an increase in positive mood states, and major improvements in anxiety, depression, hostility, and the tendency to somatize, that is, to be overly preoccupied with one's bodily sensations. By the end of the program, people with chronic pain in this study were reporting taking less pain medication, being more active, and feeling better in general.

Even more encouraging, these improvements lasted. In a separate study, which looked at how people with pain conditions were coping up to four years after their experiences in the stress clinic, we found that, on the average, most of the gains they had achieved by the end of the program were either maintained or improved still further..

In addition, the follow-up study showed that the pain patients continued to keep up with their meditation practice, many to a very strong degree. Ninety-three percent said that they continued to practice the meditation in one form or another at some level. Almost everybody reported still using awareness of their breathing during the day, and other informal mindfulness practices. Some were practicing formally as well when they felt a need. About 42 percent were still practicing formally at least three times per week for at least 16 minutes at a time three years later, although by four years, this percentage dropped to 30 percent; all in all, an impressive level of discipline and commitment considering they had learned the practice years earlier.

The pain patients in the follow-up study were asked to rate how important their training in the stress clinic was to them at the time they were being asked to respond. Fourty-four percent (at three years) and 67 percent (at four years) rated the program between 8 and 10 on a 1-to-10 scale (where a rating of 10 meant "very important"), and over 50 percent rated it 10 at four years. Responses for six months, one year, and two years of follow-up fell between these values, from 67 percent rating it between 8 and 10 at six months to 52 percent giving it that rating at two years.

In terms of how much what they learned in the clinic was responsible for their pain reduction at follow-up, 43 percent said that 80 to 100 percent of their pain improvement at follow-up was due to what they had learned in the stress clinic, and another 25 percent said that 50 to 80 percent of their pain improvement was due to what they learned there. So by their own reports, the meditation training had lasting effects in terms of their pain improvements.

In another study, we compared two groups of pain patients. All 42 people in this study were being treated in our hospital's pain clinic using standard medical protocols as well as supportive therapies such as physical therapy. But one group of 21 patients was also practicing the meditation in the stress clinic in addition to their pain clinic treatments, while the other group had not yet been referred to the stress clinic. Both groups were followed over a ten-week period, the meditators between the time they started and the time they finished the stress clinic' the other group between the time they started their pain clinic treatments and ten weeks later.

We knew from previous studies that we could expect the meditators to show large reductions in pain and psychological distress on our rating scales. The question was, How would the meditators compare with other patients in the pain clinic who were not practicing meditation but who were receiving powerful medical treatments for pain?

posted August 14, 2011 11:24 AM            

Kenneth H. Kaplan, M.D, Don L. Goldenberg, M.D., and Maureen Galvin-Nadeau, M.S., C.S., The Impact of a Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program on Fibromyalgia. General Hospital Psychiatry 15, 284-289, 1993.

Abstract:

Fibromyalgia is a chronic illness characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and resistance to treatment.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program on fibromyalgia. Seventy-seven patients meeting the 1990 criteria of the American College of Rheumatology for fibromyalgia took part in a 10-week group outpatient program. Therapists followed a carefully defined treatment approach and met weekly to further promote uniformity.

Patients were evaluated before and after the program. Initial evaluation included a psychiatric structured clinical interview (SCID). Outcome measures included visual analog scales to measure global well being, pain, sleep, fatigue, and feeling refreshed in the morning. Patients also completed a medical symptom checklist, SCL-90-R, Coping Strategies Questionnaire, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, and the Fibromyalgia Attitude Index. Although the mean scores of all the patients completing the program showed improvement, 51% showed moderate to marked improvement and only they were counted as “responders”.

These preliminary findings suggest that a meditation-based stress reduction program is effective for patients with fibromyalgia.

____________________________________

New Treatment

While fibromyalgia is the most common disease seen in women by their rheumatologists, it has emerged as a condition that is darn difficult to treat. To that end, a research group from the University of Basel has suggested a new type of treatment as an effective method for alleviating the symptoms of fibromyalgia. This new treatment is a systematic program called Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) that can reduce the suffering associated with a large number of medical ailments of which fibromyalgia is just one.

The researchers found improvement in a variety of aspects pertaining to the general well-being of fibromyalgia patients who used MBSR. Chief among these areas where improvement was seen were coping ability, a positive attitude, a lessening of depression and anxiety, decreased symptoms, and far greater quality of life (QoL). The researchers analyzed the effects of MBSR versus social support groups over a period of 8 weeks in 58 middle-aged women with fibromyalgia.

The groups formed according to the date of entry of the participants with 6 participants dropping out of the study before completion of the program. Those participating in the study measured their own progress by various means such as visual analog pain, pain perception, coping with pain, quality of life, and a checklist of symptoms.

The visual analog pain involves using common adjectives to describe the level of pain at a given point. The patient supplies the date, the activity performed at the time the pain is experienced, and records the beginning and ending of the pain experience.

Pain perception has to do with the particular sensitivities of the individual. For instance, most of us are not aware of the pressure of the clothing we wear on our skin.
Freaking Out?

Coping with pain has to do with our response to pain at any given time. Do we freak out, or act brave? Are we depressed or insist on being positive in the face of adversity?

Quality of life is the level of our ability to feel fulfillment as we go about living our daily lives.

posted August 14, 2011 11:33 AM            

There are also good grounding visualizations that I use that should work along the same spectrum of the grounding mats.. Kundalini causes intense pains sometimes when parts of the energy body start moving out blockages. http://www.elcollie.com/st/symptoms.html

If kundalini is causing your fibromyalgia, it is best to not lay down for the body scans as laying down flat on your back increases kundalini. Also holding your back strait will help with psychological issues that arise. Frequently doing the gyan mudra will also help with grounding and will help your body handle kundalini better. Sometimes when my kundalini is really bad, I've been known to duct tape my fingers into this mudra and duct tape grounding stones on my feet.

posted August 14, 2011 05:50 PM            

my ex-BF's best friend was a Chinese masseuse, and he healed a man who was paralysed. his arms and legs were stiff and he could not move them. it took a long time, but in the end the man could barely walk on his legs.

now, i know it's totally different from having bodily pain, but i understand that Chinese massage can find out many problems of the body, and do amazing things. this friend once gave me a massage, and i laid down and he touched my back. really he just roughly touched my back! and he asked me if i was drinking too much coffee and not enough water.

maybe you can give it a try once and see if they can say anything about your symptoms, or even do anything about it?

posted August 14, 2011 06:28 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by cathy:
Lexx maybe you could try those suggestions.I can't imagine what you are going through. I'm not a nurse but a registed care aide. I go to peoples homes.All I can really do sometimes is try to make them comfortable, Your health problems are in no way your fault,

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posted August 15, 2011 07:29 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by LEXX:

Oh I would love to try Chinese massage and even acupuncture but such is not covered by my insurance and I cannot afford the costs.

---

i feared so. it's going to take many more years unfortunately till they start trusting the "results" of certain medical practices and not whether it's scientifically provable or acceptable. Chinese medicine has been around for longer than the Western medicine. but the "new-comer" cannot prove Chinese medicine using their own method, so that means it doesn't work and doesn't get covered by insurance! oh well...

posted August 15, 2011 03:06 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by mochai:
The pain management program is designed just for people with your type of injuries. It has a very high success rate, and has been around long enough that you should be able to interlibrary loan it as an audio-book should you be having blind spells.

Not only that but it has a high success rate for treating emotional upheavel and anxiety given it's psychosomatic focus. It's still worth a look.. The fact that it's not a major part of every hospital pain management program is a travesty.

---

posted August 15, 2011 03:08 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by lechien:
i feared so. it's going to take many more years unfortunately till they start trusting the "results" of certain medical practices and not whether it's scientifically provable or acceptable. Chinese medicine has been around for longer than the Western medicine. but the "new-comer" cannot prove Chinese medicine using their own method, so that means it doesn't work and doesn't get covered by insurance! oh well...

well, all i can say is i hope you'll find a way... in the meantime, it may be worth it to look deeper into what Mochai is introducing. good luck!!!

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posted August 17, 2011 06:39 AM            

Personally I TAKE my pain meds.
I am a woose and I can't stand being in the twisted creature kind of pain that you were describing.
I would rather be dopey than that, b/c how much are you really functioning while being in that much pain.
Also, over the years I've learned that taking the meds BEFORE the pain gets bad, makes them work a whole lot better, and in the end you don't need as much.

I've had different things wrong with me over the years that they couldn't figure out, and they always make you feel like you are making it up, and it gets so bad, you just wanna, well you know, EXIT.

I use to think, and this is awful.. but I use to think.. "Well, I can't wait til I die, and when they cut me open, FINALLY they will say "OH, No freaking wonder she was complaining all the time! X, Y and Z are wrong in here, and we didn't see it!"

Then they would go tell my family, and my family would feel sorry that they ever doubted me.
So, I guess what I am saying is that my negativity fed into more negativity, and it was just like an endless cycle. ugh.
I mean, not saying you, me, she, he,, them.. don't have cause, I'm just saying that what can you do, besides get through each day?

Anyway, the worst issues I ever went through were these migraines.. I mean, alot of people have migraines. I think I've read that once a month is EXCESSIVE, and some people confuse a really bad headache with a migraine, but I had these kinds where I could not see, speak, think.. I mean, it felt like someone was stabbing me violently in one side of my head.

I would go to the ER, they would dope me up, I would pray it was over, then I would come home and when the stuff wore off, they were back.
This was for about 3 weeks long, and at the tme I had a brand new infant.

On the last day, I sat on my floor and just thudded my head against the wall, over and over, and over.
I thought if I could just knock myself unconscious, I would get some relief!
What I did was scare the crap out of my mother and she called the ambulance.

They took me in and read my records, seeing how many recent visits I had. (my friend IS a nurse, and she said this causes suspicion b/c if you go to ER alot, the staff can think you are an addict out of drugs, and needing to get a fix, so you are pretending you have an issue.)
This time, I had a great internest that happended to be working that shift, and she was an and she taught me some things about pain control, but first she ordered a bunch of tests that are not normally ordered for migraines.
One was a spinal tap.. owwww, but that sort of turned everything around.

It came back with uber amounts of protein in it. Your spinal fluid should not have protein in it.
This led to the conclusion that there was an infection somewhere in my body.

Long story short..
I had had one for yearsssss and didnt know it.
The first few years of my life (13 of them) were with people who didnt believe in doctors, antibiotics, or anything but wives tale type of remedies.
I suffered alot in pain as a kid, but what do you know then?
I was told when I had an infection that "it will go away." so, I got no treatment.
It's just the way it was.

So, I stayed in the hosp for a long time and they gave me IV antibiotics and my headaches are now just a yearly, or bi-yearly thing.
But, what I learned to deal, I will tell you in the next post, lol. Cause you guys are prolly tired of reading my story by now.

posted August 17, 2011 02:37 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by SunChild:
((( Hugs )))

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posted August 17, 2011 03:00 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:
Hi Lexx
Having lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, I can relate to a degree, but probably nothing close.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:
I probably won't add much than what you already know, but I'll give ya all I got.

Personally I TAKE my pain meds.
I am a woose and I can't stand being in the twisted creature kind of pain that you were describing.
I would rather be dopey than that, b/c how much are you really functioning while being in that much pain.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:

Also, over the years I've learned that taking the meds BEFORE the pain gets bad, makes them work a whole lot better, and in the end you don't need as much.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:
I've had different things wrong with me over the years that they couldn't figure out, and they always make you feel like you are making it up, and it gets so bad, you just wanna, well you know, EXIT.

I use to think, and this is awful.. but I use to think.. "Well, I can't wait til I die, and when they cut me open, FINALLY they will say "OH, No freaking wonder she was complaining all the time! X, Y and Z are wrong in here, and we didn't see it!"

Then they would go tell my family, and my family would feel sorry that they ever doubted me.[b]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:
[B]
So, I guess what I am saying is that my negativity fed into more negativity, and it was just like an endless cycle. ugh.
I mean, not saying you, me, she, he,, them.. don't have cause, I'm just saying that what can you do, besides get through each day?

---

posted August 17, 2011 03:01 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:
Anyway, the worst issues I ever went through were these migraines.. I mean, alot of people have migraines. I think I've read that once a month is EXCESSIVE, and some people confuse a really bad headache with a migraine, but I had these kinds where I could not see, speak, think.. I mean, it felt like someone was stabbing me violently in one side of my head.

I would go to the ER, they would dope me up, I would pray it was over, then I would come home and when the stuff wore off, they were back.
This was for about 3 weeks long, and at the tme I had a brand new infant.

On the last day, I sat on my floor and just thudded my head against the wall, over and over, and over.
I thought if I could just knock myself unconscious, I would get some relief!
What I did was scare the crap out of my mother and she called the ambulance.

They took me in and read my records, seeing how many recent visits I had. (my friend IS a nurse, and she said this causes suspicion b/c if you go to ER alot, the staff can think you are an addict out of drugs, and needing to get a fix, so you are pretending you have an issue.)
This time, I had a great internest that happended to be working that shift, and she was an and she taught me some things about pain control, but first she ordered a bunch of tests that are not normally ordered for migraines.
One was a spinal tap.. owwww, but that sort of turned everything around.

It came back with uber amounts of protein in it. Your spinal fluid should not have protein in it.
This led to the conclusion that there was an infection somewhere in my body.

Long story short..
I had had one for yearsssss and didnt know it.
The first few years of my life (13 of them) were with people who didnt believe in doctors, antibiotics, or anything but wives tale type of remedies.
I suffered alot in pain as a kid, but what do you know then?
I was told when I had an infection that "it will go away." so, I got no treatment.
It's just the way it was.

So, I stayed in the hosp for a long time and they gave me IV antibiotics and my headaches are now just a yearly, or bi-yearly thing.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by GypseeWind:

But, what I learned to deal, I will tell you in the next post, lol. Cause you guys are prolly tired of reading my story by now.

Just wanted you to know you had company on this weird journey of mysterious sicknesses.

---

posted August 23, 2011 01:27 AM            

hee hee, anyway, I just wanted to say, I had not forgot that I said I would be back with more, but IDK if this is maybe the place to go on with the story b/c I know many here are into holistic healing and I am not.
So, I don't wish to offend anyone.

I will add a few techniques that may be of some help, here when I'm feeling a bit better myself, and can put two thoughts together and actually have them make sense.

In the meantime, Keep your chin up, you are here for a reason, and you are reaching out as such & may be helping an untold amount of people!
I mean, who knows how many people read and lurk these forums and feel comforted that another speaks out about their illness.
For some, it's very difficult, its a pride issue..

My husband was raised in a home where it was shameful and weak to be sick.
If he didn't feel good, he was afraid to tell his mother b/c she would send him to his room the whole day and night.
She actually once said, "If you are sick, I don't want to look at you, go to bed."

These sort of perceptions of the sick are STILL around, no matter how we wish they were not.
Just look in the working world,
you are awarded for all the days you've shown up
you are reprimanded or even fired for the days you don't, even if you have a doctors note, I know, cause it happened to me.
So you may say,
"Well, a company can't run if the employees are off sick."
True, true..
so, we should just hire the healthy and hearty and throw the rest away, no mattter what they may bring to the table, instead of maybe thinking of more creative ways to accomodate them??

I'm not talking about kids who don't show up on monday mornings b/c they are hung over I am talking about legit stuff here.

posted August 23, 2011 01:58 PM            

I am doing my best.
And thank you for your kindness and caring last evening when I was having a bit of a frustrating/scary neurological episode. {{{hugs}}}
I was afraid at first that it was another mini-stroke but so far does not seem to be, but will definitely keep an eye on it until all symptoms leave and my motor skills return to my normal.