Archive for category Chronic Pain
Chronic Pain’s Relationship to Microscopic Scarring of Elastic, Collagen-Based, Connective Tissues
Posted by admin in Chronic Pain on December 15, 2011
Chronic Pain and its Relationship to Microscopic Scarring of Elastic, Collagen-Based, Connective Tissues (An Overview)
Are you aware that approximately one in five Americans suffers with Chronic Pain? Chronic Pain is miserable, and can quickly make every day your personal “Mount Everest”. It affects every area of your life, and can be seen on your face and in your eyes. The latest medical research likens brain scans of people suffering with Chronic Pain, to those of people with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Those of you suffering with Chronic Pain have been through all the medical tests, but no one can seem to tell you why you hurt. You are sick of going to doctors who not only do not understand what you have to deal with 24-7-365; they act like you are nothing more than a drug-seeker. Or a free-loader who is trying to collect Social Security Disability. Or a whining hypochondriac.
They look at you with blank stares and give you words of wisdom like, “After all Mrs. Smith; you just aren’t as young as you used to be.” Or they tell you that it’s, “Just a little arthritis”. Or maybe they try the latest scheme, and tell you that your pain is being caused by Depression (even though current research shows that the opposite is closer to the truth). Either way, you have been through all the tests, and tried all the treatments; and you are no closer to a solution than when you started. Believe it or not, your problem could be as simple as scar tissue.
MICROSCOPIC SCAR TISSUE
Some collagen-based connective tissues like bone and most cartilages, are part of your body’s load-bearing framework. Their purpose is to withstand Compressive Forces, while grossly maintaining the body’s shape. On the other hand, you have the elastic, collagen-based, connective tissues, whose chief job is overcome the Tensile Forces that are constantly trying to pull the body apart. These tissues must be able to stretch; and includes ligaments, tendons, muscles, and fascia.
When healthy, these “elastic connective tissues” are all very similar. If you were to look at them under a microscope, you would notice that the individual collagen fibers all align in a very orderly and organized parallel fashion to each other —- sort of like well-combed hair. On the other hand, when these tissues are injured by overuse (jobs, sports, etc) or trauma (sports, car wrecks, etc), they become disorganized and tend to take on a “Weaved Basket” appearance microscopically. We now end up with injured tissues whose microscopic fibers run every which way — in all three dimensions. The injured tissue becomes very disorganized, with individual fibers acting more like a wadded up and tangled “hairball” than well-combed hair. As you can imagine, this “micro-scarring” is a big problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Maintaining Your Balance With Chronic Pain
Posted by admin in Chronic Pain on November 12, 2011
The phrase “maintaining your balance” probably makes you think about keeping your body upright without falling over. Although physical balance can be an issue when dealing with certain medical conditions and taking medications, there is another type of balance that is equally important and often overlooked in the treatment of chronic pain. When dealing with chronic pain “the other balance” is your emotional balance.
Chronic pain is both a physical and emotional stressor. All patients who have a chronic pain condition also naturally experience chronic, pain-related emotional stress. Like physical pain, emotional distress is variable. It usually goes up and down with your pain level and makes you more emotionally sensitive to the influence of day-to-day stressors. Knowing how to effectively respond to and manage this emotional distress is a key part of developing successful pain management coping strategies. These coping strategies assist patients as they search to find ways to live with their chronic pain.
Over time, chronic pain patients learn a lot about the physical aspects of their pain. This knowledge includes medical terms and diagnoses, medication names and types of procedures. Unfortunately there usually isn’t much discussion or information about the emotional challenges chronic pain brings into your life and how to best handle them. Properly managing pain-related stress is very important. The longer pain-related emotional distress stays elevated, the greater the risk for losing emotional balance. When emotional balance is lost, the consequences can be much more than feeling stressed, depressed or frustrated. Loss of emotional balance is associated with higher levels of pain, decreased ability to tolerate pain, poor immune functioning, increased use of pain medication and loss of quality of life.
How do you keep your emotional balance while living with chronic pain? The right answer isn’t easy to find. As stated earlier, pain-related emotional distress is variable and influenced by several factors (e.g., pain level, poor sleep, time of day, how much emotional support you have, or what other problems/challenges you face). To complicate things further, a coping strategy (such as ignoring your pain or distracting yourself) may be successful one day but not the next. Considering the information above, it makes sense that maintaining your emotional balance can be very difficult and the best way to achieve and maintain it can be elusive. Read the rest of this entry »
Chronic Illness or Chronic Pain Making You Feel Useless? Faithbook May Be Part of God’s Plan for You
Posted by admin in Chronic Pain on October 28, 2011
Perhaps like me, you thought you knew the plan. Go to work every day, take a family vacation in the summer, celebrate holidays, watch the kids grow up, and one day retire.
You were traveling down life’s highway minding your own business. But somehow your plan shifted. Now you’re headed down a different road and don’t know where it leads!
Perhaps chronic illness and/or chronic pain changed your life and you can no longer travel the path that you planned.
But God still has plans for you.
The Bible tells us that God has good plans for us. His plans will give us hope and a future. He tells us to pray to Him and He will listen to us.
I’ve believed that for many years but it became tough when I was the one in the midst of the trial. After 17 years in education, I could no longer be a teacher. I would lie on the sofa and cry out to God “But what are your plans for me?” I knew it wasn’t just to lie around and wait to die.
Through several years and a series of steps, I felt God leading me to write stories of how He had been faithful to me and my family. During this time, I developed an interest in a new hobby (scrapbooking.) Eventually, I felt the urge to combine the two and I started Scrapbooking about my Faith “Faithbooking.”
Make a Difference in Someone’s Life
You may be thinking, “I’d really love to make a difference but you don’t know how I feel.” You’re right-I don’t. But I do know what it’s like to deal with chronic illness and daily pain for years. And then endure all that’s associated with them-hospital visits, doctor appointments, medicines, emergency rooms, and procedure after procedure-not to mention the lost quality time with loved ones. Read the rest of this entry »