For Chronic Pain, Off-Label Naltrexone In Low Doses Seems To Help : Shots - Health News : NPR
Lori Pinkley, a 50-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., has struggled with puzzling chronic pain since she was 15.She's had endless disappointing visits with doctors. Some said they couldn't help her. Others diagnosed her with everything from fibromyalgia to lipedema to the rare Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.Pinkley has taken opioids a few times after surgeries but says they never helped her underlying pain."I hate opioids with a passion," Pinkley says."An absolute passion."Recently, she joined a growing group of patients using an outside-the-box remedy: naltrexone. It is usually used to treat addiction, in...
Source: Psychology of Pain - September 24, 2019 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
HYPERMOBILITY CARTOON: In which I come unhinged — again
I have severe Joint Hypermobility Disorder. I dislocated my jaw chewing on a piece of baguette. I walked a couple blocks to the dentist, did the new patient registration, and they advised me to go to A&E [Accident & Emergency]. So my husband picked me up, and four hours later my jaw had been clicked […] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:)
Source: Andrea's Buzzing About: - December 4, 2017 Category: Disability Authors: andrea Tags: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder) Source Type: blogs
The cost of chronic pain
There is a saying that being poor is expensive. From personal experience, I know this to be true. But I think it also needs to be said that, especially in the United States, chronic illness can be quite expensive as well. In fact, there is a huge intersection between poverty and disability/illness. As with many intersections, it is a chicken-or-egg scenario, difficult to determine which is begetting which. But one thing is clear: there are often blind spots about these expenses in the medical community and how they can impact chronically ill people already struggling with finances.
Recently I attended a seminar on the topi...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 10, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Laura Kiesel Tags: Health Health care Health policy Pain Management Source Type: blogs
The Impact of Aging on Skin Biomechanics, Involving Cross-Links and Proteoglycans
In conclusion, our simultaneous observations of the mechanical behavior at macroscopic scale and of the microstructure of dermis are well explained in the framework of our multiscale interpretation of skin mechanics, which seems applicable to both aged and young murine skin. The two main microstructural changes affecting the mechanical properties appear to be the age-induced cross-linking and the degradation of the proteoglycan non-fibrillar matrix, which let the water flow out more easily. All these considerations emphasize the complex role of the microstructure in the mechanical properties. Our findings open the door to ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 31, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: A mystery solved
I have always been accident-prone. It wasn’t unusual for me to suddenly lose my balance while walking down an even-paved path as though someone had slid a banana peel in front of me. I’d slam down hard on the ground, skinning knees and elbows. I once fell off a boardwalk on my bike into a swamp, my body casting an impressive outline in the reeds — like a cartoon character who has run through a wall. My body was often a landscape of bruises and scabs, while most of my dishes were doomed to break at some point, causing consternation among my roommates. The dishes were just some of the casualties of my clumsiness, f...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 7, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Laura Kiesel Tags: Health Managing your health care Source Type: blogs
Stop the war against patients with intractable pain
An open letter to doctors still prescribing opioid medication when necessary:
Thank you so much for standing up for us pain patients. My chronic pain comes from a genetic connective tissue disorder (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome), so there is no treatment or cure for my slow, but relentless, physical deterioration as the collagen holding my body together falls apart.
I, like so many other pain patients, spent years (1982-1995) trying other therapies (yoga, acupuncture, chiropractic, diets, supplements, PT, lots of exercise) and non-opioid drugs (anti-epileptics and antidepressants) with horrible intolerable side effects.
Continue...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 10, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/angelika-byczkowski" rel="tag" > Angelika Byczkowski < /a > Tags: Patient Pain management Source Type: blogs
IN MEMORIUM: A light for patient advocacy goes out, too soon
This post by Chelsea Rice first appeared on Athena Insight on August 19, 2016.
“There’s no reason that only 4.75% of outpatient visits and .08% of my hospitalizations are spent actively treating my condition. There’s no reason that I spent two solid months (1540 hours, 64.2 days) of this year waiting instead of healing. So, please, stop wasting my time. Stop wasting my life.”
— Jess Jacobs “On Wasting My Time — The Numbers“
Jessica “Jess” Jacobs, a 29-year-old healthcare IT professional and patient, wrote these words in her blog in November 2014. In the post, she categorized the relative usefulness o...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - August 22, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Performance Insight Uncategorized newtag Source Type: blogs
It’s time for an honest conversation about pain management
Psoriatic arthritis can be a debilitating condition. It can lead to painful complications such as neuropathy. Its treatments can lead to complications such as shingles, which can leave a patient with continuing pain. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is for most patients a painful condition that leads to spontaneous dislocations, early arthritis, and frequent migraines. My husband and I have decades of experience between us in living with these conditions.
My husband and I are also physicians with 57 years experience working with patients between us. We have a world of inside information from both sides of the aisle on the chronic pa...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 7, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Holly Clowers, MD Tags: Meds Pain management Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 120
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 120
Question 1
What rheumatological condition does Rembrandt’s Scholar have?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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Scleroderma
He has a pinched nose, tight mouth, pale face with a malar flush, his hands are puffy and the joints on his right thumbs are swollen. Could this be Scleroderma? [Reference]
Question 2
When Rac...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - October 9, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five collapse dentist FFFF hands Kluver-bucy syndrome melanoma pleural collapse rachmaninoff rachmaninov Rembrandt scleroderma TB teeth temporal lobe Source Type: blogs
Gastroparesis Awareness Month: A Day In The Life
This is my second post for Gastroparesis Awareness Month. Read my first post, Tube Love, here. My first post was a love poem to my feeding tube. :-) My second one is a little more serious and a lot longer. I apologize for the length. I have trouble reading lengthy posts myself. But sometimes I’m incapable of summarizing myself, so I have to write posts that are too long for even me to read. I hope you’ll at least be able to skim through the important parts. I’ve tried to break up the text with lots of photos, to see if that helps any.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
My day starts when my morning careg...
Source: Ballastexistenz - August 23, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Mel Baggs Tags: Adrenal insufficiency Aspiration pneumonia Bronchiectasis Education Feeding tube Food Gastroparesis Life Skills Medical Medical stuff Personal history Treatment adult tubie adult tubies awareness awareness months bipap ce Source Type: blogs
Pearls on carotid cavernous fistulas
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); from Wijdicks text on acute neurology1. Associations-- remote trauma post transsphenoidal surgery post ethmoidal surgery post carotid surgery Ehlers Danlos syndrome pregnancy2. Visual loss is due to increased intraocular pressure or rev...
Source: neurologyminutiae - February 25, 2013 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs
