Pain Management

We hear all the time about the evils of hydrocodone, Vicodin, what have you... To hear politicians describe it, this drug is the worst thing out there... The problem is that it's also what keeps many people suffering from chronic pain functional.

There's no doubt that people get addicted. I'm not arguing this. What I am saying is that doctors should be the ones who determine whether or not someone has access to this type of medication.

About 10 years ago now, I blew a disc in my lumbar spine. At the time, this drug was a Godsend. It kept me able to work. Thankfully, I then was helped by an epidural treatment which temporarily fixed the problem. Three years after that, it came back with a vengeance. A quack pain management doctor (Lasalle) in the Kansas City Metro tried something like 6 different epidural treatments and even an ablasion where they burned the nerves in my back. Nothing helped, except the hydrocodone that they gave me during treatments. I finally had a laminectomy, which corrected the problem.

Six months later I was diagnosed with sero positive Rheumatoid Arthritis. Again, I went through who knows how many drug treatments to attack the disease. Thankfully, we've prevented joint damage to date. However, there's never a time when I'm pain free. I'm always at between a 4-5 on the pain scale.

I'm thankful for a doctor who helps with my pain management by providing this drug. Without it, I would likely not be able to work. With it, I'm able to lead a team of software sales engineers for a major software company, in the call center industry.

Medical decisions should regulate the availability of this important drug. If someone abuses the drug, then obviously, they shouldn't have access to it. However, making it a political issue or reclassifying it so that the people who truly need it have a much harder time is simply wrong.

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

This is an outstanding Ted Talk that I would refer anyone to. Outstanding!

Simon Sinek - Leadership

Lidocaine Patches

Lately, I've been having a lot of pain in my ankles. I didn't want to take even more pain medicine, so in talking with my primary doctor, he recommended using these patches. The patches come as a 10cm x 14cm rectangle. I typically cut them into strips and put them across my ankles. 

It might not help for you, but they've been a blessing to me.

All the best today! Stay strong and never give up.
J

Fighting to stay active

In the last 5 and a half years, since I was diagnosed with RA, I've found it harder and harder to motivate myself to stay in shape. Frankly, I became so afraid of the pain that I wasn't willing to make the sacrifice of exercising... What made it worse is that before this journey began, I like being active. When I was in the Marines, we would run sometimes just because we were bored...

So how do you motivate yourself knowing that the sacrifice isn't just time? It's likely that your pain will increase. I would give almost anything to be able to run like that again... I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist but it seems like the key to this type of motivation is wanting something / having a goal. The other thing that I have to continue to remind myself is that God wasn't surprised by my having RA. I firmly believe that having RA is the best thing for me, because I trust that the Lord is true to His word.

I've also read many things about exercising best practices and they always say to have an exercise buddy. I have two - my daughter Petra and my son Liam.

In most cases, Liam comes with me while Petra comes along when she can.

Most RA patients deal with morning stiffness. Mine tends to last between 45 and 90 minutes. So, I try to get started working early, at my job, so that I can use my lunch break for working out. I have been blessed to be able to work from home, so this is actually pretty easy.

So far we've been at this for about 6 weeks and thankfully we're seeing results. I was starting to push beyond wearing a 40 inch waist pant comfortably, but my middle is slowing deflating... 

I also read recently a study done in the UK regarding chronic fatigue, which is common with RA. I've added it below

It doesn't say whether regular exercise has either a positive or negative impact on chronic fatigue, but that would certainly be interesting data.

Be well, today! 

How Stupid Are People

Should we look at the constant scandals, foul ups, SNAFUs, etc from our Federal Government?

Let's just look at the "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" that the President is currently responsible for, let alone complicit with...
1. The VA Scandal - mid level / high-level bureaucrats cooked the books to make it look like they were seeing veterans in a timely manner, in order to receive bonuses. That's fraud. However, in addition to that it's now clear that people have died because of this fraud...
2. Bergdahl - Obama specifically decides to release 5 senior members of Al-Quida. OK, he had that authority, as long as he obeys the law... He didn't. The law in this case is specific. 30 day notification is required before the release of any detainee from Guantanamo. OK, they say it was urgent... Wait, apparently the negotiations took months... They say they couldn't tell Congress because if it leaked Bergdahl's life was in danger.... Wait, 80-90 people already knew about it during the negotiations... I know the definition of lying is watching a politician talk, but this is ridiculous.  
3. Negotiation with terrorists. They claim they didn't violate this standard that has been a benchmark of security, but regardless of the stupid excuses that they gave, they did negotiate with terrorists.
4. Asleep at the switch. Now after how many of our soliders, sailors and Marines have died in the War with Iraq, the country is about to be overrun by another terrorist organization. Caught completely flat footed, these people are incompetent at best and complicit at worst and the president should be impeached.

Exciting Research Going On

Creakyjoing.com, one of the most popular arthritis organizations on the Internet, is a part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation. GHLF has been awarded a PCORI contract to develop a PPRN or patient-powered research network as a part of the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) working with the University of Alabama's Center for Education and Research.

What this means is that patient governors are being selected to help in the following ways:

• Advisor: through discussions on monthly conference calls, at the annual Patient Governor Group conference, and informally throughout the year, a Governing Member will serve as a sounding board for the GHLF/CreakyJoints staff and health researchers by representing the viewpoint of AR-PoWER patient/members specifically and individuals affected by inflammatory arthritis generally.

• Advocate: a Governing Member will serve as an advocate for the value of patient participation and leadership in rheumatology research.

• Ambassador: as an informed insider, a Governing Member will serve as an ambassador for AR-PoWER to other individuals affected by inflammatory arthritis, their caregivers, healthcare providers, and to the wider community.

• Research Collaborator: a Governing Member will work with fellow Governing Members, other patients, and with professional researchers to participate in one or more of the following research activities: outreach and recruitment, identify topics for research, set priorities for research, frame study questions, develop research protocols, implement research activities, review and interpret research results, and disseminate or implement research findings.

I've been honored as one of these Patient Governors, and am looking forward to writing here about this research project, as time goes by.