(Image: Written Within* by Elizabeth Banfield hand burnished linocut, kozo tissue, thread ©2017) My sacral stim and I have known each other for a full 17 months now, so I felt it was the [...]
The Alcohol & Drug Foundation (ADF) has been working to enhance awareness about the way Australians consume pain killers. My understanding of the campaign is that the ADF in no way suggests pain killers [...]
Ever wondered what a stim’s controller’s day looks like? Firstly, let me clarify that I’m talking about my Boston Scientific Sacral Stimulation Implant controller (BSSSIC), not my St. Jude’s Peripheral Stimulation Implant [...]
My new stim’s changed everything. I’m grateful. Can you imagine if the whole process (from trial to permanent implant) hadn’t change anything? In addition to the stim changing everything, I’m living a [...]
It’s taken almost 9 years but I’ve realised that chronic pain requires alot of study – dare I say never-ending study? I believe my research for pain relief for chronic pain may [...]
I know that living with pain for over eight years reduces confidence and belief. It even (warning, I'm going to use the C word), discourages hope for a cure. But how could I have assumed I found my best self for four years (nearly five actually, gulp!)?
So someone got talking to someone on a plane (you know how that story goes, your eyes begin to glaze over because you're in pain thinking 'if this friend tells me I need to meet someone and sustain a new friendship, I'm going to punch him' - but in the end, it works out that you wished you had sat next to that someone on the plane, and you meet that person and you wished you had met them a very long time ago (like eight years ago for me).
Thinning bones at the age of 43. That's not good, in fact I landed, once again, in that unique and very small group of patients with a rare condition...
Last week, I attended my last acupuncture appointment and for the first time in over seven years, am therapist free. Hang on, I have to just repeat that: I am therapist free Did I ever think this day would come? Of course I did and I believe that's why I am here. I have had my moments, but what I didn't realise through all that heat and whilst pacing like a snail, was that each flare up and pain episode was actually not an indication that pain was here to stay, but rather that it was actually beginning to leave. Although just a difference of minutes initially, eventually I felt the flare ups spreading further apart. And with recognising that change and NOT increasing my capacity past a snail's shell weight, I began to make progress.
(http://americannewsreport.com/nationalpainreport/my-story-a-pain-in-the-coccyx-8823596.html) The National Pain Report, my story. April 14th, 2014 by Soula Mantalvanos I begged my neurosurgeon to do anything, even to chop my coccyx off. But after getting opinions from other surgeons, he suggested not to go the invasive path as we had the option for an implant called a peripheral stimulator, a treatment that was reversible. It made more sense.
