Tuesday-Newsday #131

Time for Tuesday-Newsday! There are three Featured Blog Posts this week: “The Art of Letting Go – Making New Year's ‘Anti-Resolutions’," "Happy New Year: Time to think how we can make our lives the best that they can be in 2014,” and “Creating Beauty From a Life of Chronic Pain.”

Let Me Know: If you’d like me to watch for articles on your pain condition, just drop me a note in the comments section below. 

WARNING:  My goal is to provide the most up-to-date news I can, which you can then take to your personal doctor and debate the merits of before you try it. I do not endorse any of the docs, treatments, info, and meds in anything I post nor can I guarantee they are all effective, especially not for everyone. As is the case with any health info, ALWAYS get your doctor's opinion first!

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~* RX ALERT: VOLUNTARY DRUG RECALL *~

Lidocaine Injection Recalled in 28 States

*OBAMACARE & MEDICARE: WHAT YOU *NEED* TO KNOW

If during the holidays you missed my last post, I highly recommend that you look at Tuesday-Newsday #130 and particularly focus on the section on Obamacare - and why doctors are warning us. This is very very important to everybody, but especially for chronic pain / illness people like us. 

Here are three more stories you need to read:

Doctor warns: Stop the Medicare cuts to senior citizens and the disabled in pain

Experts: Medicare Reimbursement Cuts Potentially Devastating to Pain Doctors & Patients

Walgreens Offers Month Of Prescriptions To Backlogged Obamacare Enrollees
“(The company says) it will provide a month's supply of certain prescriptions at no upfront cost to (patients) who have not yet received a plan identification number... (They want) to make sure customers had no interruption in their prescriptions.”

*CHRONIC PAIN NEWS

7 Health Predictions for 2014

Avera to start matching pain killers with genetics

PET scans and saxitoxin allow researchers to 'see' pain

Scientists use synchrotron to develop novel Ibuprofen delivery methods for bones

Australian scorpion venom could be the next painkiller

Using sound to manage chronic pain—study

Researchers hope to ease chronic pain after enzyme discovery

FDA Wants New Study of Suboxone Implant

Chronic pain amongst different ethnic groups: an interview

Jewelry, socks ease diabetes and arthritis pain

*INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES

AGA Recommendations for Crohn’s Disease Treatment

Pain Relievers Hike Flare Risk in Crohn's

Crohn's disease study uses patients' own bone marrow cells for personalized treatment

Thalidomide May Help Kids With Crohn's Disease: Drug previously tied to birth defects helped induce remission in children with difficult-to-treat disease

Using Biologic Agents to Induce Remission for Crohn's Disease, but not Ulcerative Colitis

High fiber intake reduces Crohn's disease risk

Vedolizumab Gets High Marks for Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis, Less Effective on Crohn’s Disease

New Form of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Occurs After Patients Suffer Acute Diverticulitis

Is There a Link Between IBS, Fibromyalgia, and Celiac Disease?

Manufacturing New Gut to Treat GI Diseases

*LYME DISEASE

Three die suddenly from rare Lyme disease complication

U.S. Lyme Disease Cases Vastly Underreported: CDC: Ongoing studies suggest ticks infect 300,000 people each year

*SICKLE CELL ANEMIA

Clinical Trial: Stem-cell gene therapy for sickle cell disease at UCLA

New drug could ease pain of sickle cell disease: Regadenoson 

Drug treatment means better, less costly care for children with sickle cell disease: Hydroxyurea

Flipping a gene switch reactivates fetal hemoglobin, may reverse sickle cell disease

New Insights Into Pathophysiology Of Sickle Cell Disease And Thalassemia May Help Improve Care

*FEATURED BLOG POSTS

The Art of Letting Go – Making New Year's "Anti-Resolutions"

by Lisa Lorden Myers

Happy New Year: Time to think how we can make our lives the best that they can be in 2014

by Jan Sadler of Pain Support UK

Creating Beauty From a Life of Chronic Pain
by Sue Falkner-Wood

Tuesday-Newsday #130

Time for Tuesday-Newsday! There are three Featured Blog Posts this week: “Surviving the Holidays When You’re in Pain,” "Feeling Grinch-y? What you can do when merry and bright wears thin," and “It’s time for ChronicBabe Bingo! BONUS: Free goodies!” 

Let Me Know: If you’d like me to watch for articles on your pain condition, just drop me a note in the comments section below. 

WARNING:  My goal is to provide the most up-to-date news I can, which you can then take to your personal doctor and debate the merits of before you try it. I do not endorse any of the docs, treatments, info, and meds in anything I post nor can I guarantee they are all effective, especially not for everyone. As is the case with any health info, ALWAYS get your doctor's opinion first!

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*OBAMACARE / ACA - WHAT YOU NEED TO HEAR

       Note from me: Doctors have been testifying before a Congressional Committee over the past week about how Obamacare will affect them and their patients, and saying what they think should be done to protect us. One of the doctors who testified is a neurologist who treats MS patients. His full testimony can be read HERE and I urge you to do so! This is too important to ignore and just hope that it will all come out okay. 

       What the neurologist basically talks about is how patients with complex conditions like Multiple Sclerosis in many cases not be able to get access to care and treatments they need, medications for many will be unaffordable, and many top doctors/hospitals will be squeezed out, creating a smaller pool of specialists for those who need them most. One statement he makes is, “Simply having an insurance card that does not guarantee access to providers nor medications is useless.” 

       My own personal pain physician agrees. I’m starting to get really frightened about the future of medical care for you and me. I found a few interviews and articles online from a couple of different sources so you can hear what doctors are saying:

Private pain management doctors warn of Obamacare impact 

The 'Damage' to Come: Congress Gets an Earful from Doctors 

Click on the activated link over each doctors’ name in the article and you can read their entire testimony (and I highly recommend that you do so!)

Physicians' testimony to Congress gives grim prognosis for ObamaCare

Hospitals and Doctors: Blindsided, Bewildered, and Beleagured

One doctor gives his opinion: “Dear lawmakers: Why aren’t doctors involved in health care reform?”

How to fix Obamacare: Listen to doctors

70 percent of California doctors plan to boycott Obamacare exchanges

One county health care services director warns, “Enrollment doesn’t mean access... There aren’t enough primary care physicians, period."

*MEDICATION NEWS

FDA approves first generic versions of Cymbalta

Attorney Generals Want FDA to Review Zohydro Approval

Neurontin ‘Snake Oil’ Lawsuit Upheld

Ketamine 'should be upgraded to Class B'; U.K. government advisers say new evidence shows "severe and disabling" bladder damage from frequent use

Morphine Kills The Pain, Not The Patient

Medication Safety - An Eye-Opening Display: 67,000 Children Treated Yearly for Accidental Medication Poisoning 

One pharmaceutical company to stop paying doctors to promote its drugs

The Doctor Will See You Now — On Your Cellphone

*CHRONIC PAIN NEWS

Picturing pain could help unlock its mysteries and lead to better treatments

Neuropathy May Signal Lupus

Is Your Doctor Ignoring Your Pain? Here's how to make sure you're heard loud and clear

St. Jude to test chronic pain control without the tingling

Men With Pelvic Pain Find a Path to Treatment Blocked by a Gynecology Board

Woman receives $4.7 million federal settlement for chronic pain (CRPS) from improperly administered flu shot

Acupuncture Unlocks Frozen Shoulder Pain - New Research

*LUPUS

Epratuzumab decreased corticosteroid use and increased quality of life in lupus patients

Putting Lupus in Permanent Remission: Scientists have successfully tested a nontoxic therapy that suppresses Lupus in blood samples of people with the autoimmune disease

Headaches Accompanying Lupus Often Not Disease-Related; Nor are they linked to medical treatment, researchers say

Biomarker Linked to Poor Outcomes in Pregnant Lupus Patients

Study Shows How Social Media Engages People With Chronic Diseases

*ARTHRITIS - ALL TYPES

A new self-injection device developed to ease the pain of arthritis

Shortage of Rheumatologists Growing Worse

RA Research: Joint Protection Study Seeking Patients

Is a Statin Drug in Your Near Future? New guidelines could put millions more people on these cholesterol-lowering medications

Differentiating Bone Pain and Joint Pain: What Arthritis Patients Should Know

Foul-Smelling Gas Shows Health Benefits in Reducing Joint Swelling

Backed by Science: 9 Supplements for Arthritis Symptoms

The Ultimate Arthritis-Friendly Shoe Guide: Shoes shouldn’t hurt! Find out which styles can help ease your arthritis foot pain

Free Online Workshop sponsored by Arthritis Foundation and NCOA can help you better manage your Arthritis

This interactive online workshop that will give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage your arthritis. Read more about and sign up by clicking HERE

*FEATURED BLOG POSTS

Surviving the Holidays When You’re in Pain

by Ken Taylor at Power of Pain Foundation

Feeling Grinch-y? What you can do when merry and bright wears thin
by Dr. Laurie at Creaky Joints

It’s time for ChronicBabe Bingo! BONUS: Free goodies!

by Jenni Prokopy at Chronic Babe

Tuesday-Newsday #129

Time for Tuesday-Newsday! The Featured Blog Posts this week are “Time for Christmas” and “POPF Holiday Mail program to Support a Family Fighting Pain.” Don’t miss them below!

Let Me Know: If you’d like me to watch for articles on your pain condition, just drop me a note in the comments section below. 

WARNING:  My goal is to provide the most up-to-date news I can, which you can then take to your personal doctor and debate the merits of before you try it. I do not endorse any of the docs, treatments, info, and meds in anything I post nor can I guarantee they are all effective, especially not for everyone. As is the case with any health info, ALWAYS get your doctor's opinion first!

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*MEDICATION NEWS

No, You Can't Keep Your Drugs Either Under Obamacare

An epidemic of chronic pain: The crackdown on prescription drug abuse is treating the wrong problem

As Rx Compounding Law Passes, Split Views Persist

Immune-suppressing Drugs May Not Harm Fetuses: Taking the drugs in early pregnancy may pose less risk than previously thought

The painkillers that contain too much salt: Soluble versions of paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen put patients at 22% more risk of strokes 

*CHRONIC PAIN NEWS

Structure of key pain-related protein unveiled

Perceptual distortions of the body in pain

Palliative Care, the Treatment That Respects Pain

Chronic Pain Patients Often Lose ‘Sense of Self’

Pain doubles cancer mortality

More Than Half of Seniors Have Chronic Pain

App helps patients measure their pain

The Science of Mindfulness

'Mindfulness' Meditation Alters Gene Expression, Study Suggests

Health Experts at Pain.com Launch Redesigned Website Featuring 3D Spinning Model

*MIGRAINE / HEADACHE

Researchers say migraine sufferers should avoid plastic

Got the Sniffles? Migraines Spike With Allergies, Hay Fever

Pulsatile blood flow unmasks new migraine features

Botox to Treat 'Suicide' Cluster Headaches

Cluster Headaches: The Worst Possible Pain? Psychedelic drugs are being explored as a treatment, but research is still scarce

Headache tests and treatment you do, and don't, need: Doctors recommmend choosing wisely to minimize health risks

New Treatment For Chronic Migraines: Occipital nerve block

Migraine & Depression: The newest info about serotonin syndrome

Five Ways to Manage Holiday-Season Triggers without Medication

Controversial Migraine Surgery

Calgary study: Can aerobic exercise help migraine sufferers?

The Connection Between Migraines and Skin Temperature

The Migraine-Body Clock Connection: New Genetic Clues

Natasha, 16, complained of headaches. She died after 13 doctors failed to diagnose a brain tumour

video: The Dangers Of Chronic Migraines

*FEATURED BLOG POSTS

Time for Christmas 

by Jan Sadler of PainSupportUK

POPF Holiday Mail program: Support a Family Fighting Pain 

This Holiday Season by Sending Words of Good Cheer!

This year the Power of Pain Foundation is starting a new tradition… a Christmas card for the special pain patient or caregiver in your life. Do you know someone who feels like they are alone; well we want to give them a little joy and cheer.

So, send us their address and we will get the joy of delivering holiday greetings to patients around the world. The cards and personal messages from you will be sent out on December 15th so they arrive just in time for Christmas. Thanks for providing a welcome “touch of love” for our pain community members during the holiday season.

Each year we will also collect cards between October and early December and then distribute them through the mail, at hospitals, and in other pain management locations.

There are several ways to be part of the Holiday Mail program for the pain community. In addition to sending your own cards, let POPF know who you believe needs a card and special message this year!

*Send your cards for distribution to:

Power of Pain Foundation

38556 N. Dave Street

San Tan Valley, AZ 85140

Or email info@powerofpain.org with the recipients address 

and your personal message.

Tuesday-Newsday #128

Time for Tuesday-Newsday! The Featured Blog Posts this week are “Giving Thanks” and “Steve McQueen and the Missing ‘P’.”

Let Me Know: If you’d like me to watch for articles on your pain condition, just drop me a note in the comments section below. 

WARNING:  My goal is to provide the most up-to-date news I can, which you can then take to your personal doctor and debate the merits of before you try it. I do not endorse any of the docs, treatments, info, and meds in anything I post nor can I guarantee they are all effective, especially not for everyone. As is the case with any health info, ALWAYS get your doctor's opinion first!

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December 3 - International Day of Persons with Disabilities

*MEDICATION NEWS

Opioid over-regulation can leave cancer patients worldwide in intolerable pain

'I Just Want To Manage My Life': Painkiller Law in WA State Leaves Some Patients Behind

Biopuncture to manage chronic pain

Obama signs bill regulating compounding pharmacies 

FDA Starts Regulating Compounding Pharmacies: New powers designed to make specialty drugs safer for patients

Salt in medicines 'poses a health risk'

Microneedles on a skin patch may be the painless and safe way doctors will test for drugs and some infections in the future

*PATIENT NEWS

Demand for doctors will grow as population in US ages

Feds give health centers $150 million to treat 1.25 million new patients

Instead of the ER: Paramedics making house calls to chronic patients 

Depression 'second leading cause of disability worldwide'

Novel vital signs monitoring device gets $10.5m funding

What's up, Doc? How comic strips are improving bedside manner

Medical detection dogs: how they could save our lives in a sniff

Your Knee Bone’s Connected to Your…What? Scientists Discover New Body Part

*CANCER PAIN

Dog food additive may reduce pain in cancer patients 

Marijuana Helps Reduce Cancer Pain

Cancer Radiation Treatment For Pain Questioned

Pain: Cancer patients find healing through art

Music eases pain of kids with cancer

Strike a yoga pose: How the downward dog can beat the pain of cancer

Acupuncture Reduces Pain in Lung Cancer Patients - New Findings

Acupuncture For Pancreatic Cancer Pain - New Research

Acupuncture Could Ease Joint Pain From Breast Cancer Treatment

Study: CBD Reduces Pain, Slows Breast Cancer

Postmastectomy Pain Most Troubling Problem for Breast Cancer Survivors

When Pain Lingers After Breast Cancer Treatment

Depomed Announces the Launch of Lazanda® (fentanyl) Nasal Spray and the Signature Support™ Program for Patients with Breakthrough Cancer Pain

*FEATURED BLOG POSTS

Miss Understood: Giving Thanks

by Arlene Alonzo Grau

Living with Pain: Steve McQueen and the Missing ‘P’

by Mark Maginn

Happy Thanksgiving: My ‘Self-Challenge’ to Focus on Gratitude This Holiday Season

Living with daily chronic pain is a struggle. However adding in all the seasonal festivities, gatherings, food, family, and traveling -- plus our own self-expectations can raise our emotional and physical pain to new levels.

I think the hardest thing during the holidays for me, besides the usual issues of pacing myself and feeling frustrated at how my pain limits my activities - is to stop being negative and acknowledge my life is full of blessings. This year I want to experience the holidays differently. I want to see and feel joy every day. It's often hard to look outside ourselves, so I am making a promise to not just ‘count’ my blessings but to literally 'see' them. 

I'm going to take at least one photo of something I’m grateful for every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day and create a keep a Gratitude Album. I've never kept a gratitude journal before, and I think that since I am a visually creative person, photographs will resonate even more with me. I believe I need to tangibly acknowledge God is in my life, in my new city, in my new church, in our first home, the first time away from family. 

I’m starting my Gratitude Album right now, with a photo below of an incredible sunset I took a couple days ago while standing on my front porch. The incredible intensity of color, the unusual cloud patterns, and the brilliant light all make me grateful for the beauty of the evening sky. Even though my pain tends to be higher at that time of the day, I can’t deny I was captivated beyond myself when I watched that amazing light show. (I’m also grateful for all my blog followers!)

I challenge you to keep a Gratitude Journal or Album yourself this holiday season. I hope that we will all find a deeper appreciation for what we have, who we are, and all that is around us despite our pain and difficulties in life.

Happy Thanksgiving & Blessings to All,

~Shannon

Sunset in the Las Vegas sky from my front porch.

Tuesday-Newsday #127

Time for Tuesday-Newsday! The Featured Blog Posts this Thanksgiving Week focus on gratitude. Both posts were written by Laura Morris at A Grateful Road: “Living Life in Gratitude” and “Your Appreciation Challenge.”

Let Me Know: If you’d like me to watch for articles on your pain condition, just drop me a note in the comments section below. 

WARNING:  My goal is to provide the most up-to-date news I can, which you can then take to your personal doctor and debate the merits of before you try it. I do not endorse any of the docs, treatments, info, and meds in anything I post nor can I guarantee they are all effective, especially not for everyone. As is the case with any health info, ALWAYS get your doctor's opinion first!

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*CHRONIC PAIN NEWS

Join Your Voice with 100,000 Others & Take the Fibromyalgia Survey for the Upcoming FDA Public Fibro Patient-Focused Meeting

This survey will help educate the FDA on how Fibro affects your life, what treatments & Rx help you, and is completely anonymous

Dreading pain can be worse than pain itself

Using bee stings to relieve pain

Pain and the Elderly

Study compares prevalence, impact of chronic pain amongst different ethnic groups

Reconceptualizing John F. Kennedy’s Chronic Pain

*MEDICATION NEWS

Opinion: Patients are becoming collateral damage in America's war on drugs: Tighter restrictions on pain medications would only contribute to needless suffering

Victims in meningitis outbreak hope for criminal charges against compounding pharmacy

Brain imaging reveals dynamic changes caused by pain medicines

AMA Opposes Legalization, Calls Marijuana ‘Dangerous Drug’

Medical marijuana use for rheumatic diseases associated with multiple risk factors

Painkillers May Ease Marijuana Side Effects

Patient story: Why I Turned to Medical Marijuana

Epidural Steroid Injections May Increase Risk for Vertebral Body Fractures

Commentary: The Quest for Alternatives to Opioids in Chronic Pain: The Role of The Interventional Pain Physician

Guideline for the Use of Chronic Opioid Therapy in Chronic Noncancer Pain: Evidence Review 

This report is from the American Pain Society and The American Academy of Pain Medicine 

*BACK PAIN

Predicting who will have chronic pain – Abnormalities in brain axons predispose people to chronic back pain after injury

Botox for backs: Chronic pain and epilepsy sufferers may get months-long relief

Fear Feeds the Pain: Suffering from Lumbago

Drug may reduce chronic pain for spinal cord injuries

The effect of propofol on the sciatic nerve

Opioid use prior to spine surgery not linked with increased postoperative complications

Analysis suggests saline shots may do just as well as steroids for lower back pain

Gel jabs in your spine can treat chronic back pain 

Bone Marrow Concentrate May Treat Chronic Low Back Pain

Study Examines Cost-Effective Approach To Treat Failed Back Surgery Syndrome

More Spine Surgery Complications for Medicaid Patients: Socioeconomic factors play a role, a new study shows

Curved soles 'no better than flats' for back pain

Low Back Pain Tied to Flat Feet: Study

Dubious Study Disclaims Vitamin D for Back Pain

Is Acute Back Pain Predictive of Chronic Pain?

Spine Injuries Raise Risk of Heart Attack or Stroke

Type of Doctor Influences Whether Treatment Involves Surgery

Do you suffer from iPosture? Tablets and smartphones are causing an epidemic of back pain as people hunch over devices

Yoga Gets Women With Back Pain Moving: Study

Easing chronic back pain with the Alexander technique

Five Back Pain Treatments to Avoid

Announcing a New Scoliosis Magazine

*FEATURED BLOG POSTS

Both posts are by Laura Morris at A Grateful Road:

~Living Life in Gratitude

~Your Appreciation Challenge

Tuesday-Newsday #126

Time for Tuesday-Newsday! The Featured Blog Posts this week are: “‘Tis the Season – Don’t ‘Give’ til it Hurts” and “I Am Not a Slob, I have an Invisible Illness.”

Let Me Know: If you’d like me to watch for articles on your pain condition, just drop me a note in the comments section below. 

WARNING:  My goal is to provide the most up-to-date news I can, which you can then take to your personal doctor and debate the merits of before you try it. I do not endorse any of the docs, treatments, info, and meds in anything I post nor can I guarantee they are all effective, especially not for everyone. As is the case with any health info, ALWAYS get your doctor's opinion first!

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*CHRONIC PAIN NEWS

Why Widows and Widowers Feel Less Chronic Pain

Future Doctors Unprepared to Manage Pain

Regular Exercise Helps Reduce Pain in Seniors

The effect of acupuncture on neuropathic pain

Medtronic Recall Does Not Involve Pain Pumps or Spinal Stimulators

Balky insurers threatening to make Spinal Cord Stimulation inaccessible to patients as a first-line treatment for certain types of neuropathic pain, including CRPS and Failed Back Surgery Syndrome

The Missing ‘P’ in Pain Management: Two psychiatrists think it’s Psychiatry

Why the student health center is not for chronically ill students

video: Preparing to meet with new pain doctor

I have also written a blog post on this subject which includes other helpful suggestions. You can read it HERE

*MEDICATION NEWS

Will Opioid Scrutiny Spur NSAID Overuse?

Confusion Over Why Youths Misuse Rx Opioids

Lawmakers urge greater oversight of compounding pharmacies

opinion: Why the FDA is wrong on restricting access to Vicodin

*COMPLEX REGIONAL PAIN SYNDROME (CRPS) / REFLEX SYMPATHETIC DYSTROPHY (RSD)

NY Pain Doctors Open First CRPS Institute in Manhattan

How to Apply for Disability Benefits with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Nerve Injuries and the Fixed Dystonias of CRPS

Packard Children's care teams train brain to defeat pain of CRPS

video: CRPS & Step Therapy - How to deal with Insurance companies

video: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Treatment: TMJ Connection - see part 2 of the video HERE

video: Barby’s story of Ketamine therapy putting her into remission

Incurable pain leads patient to hope: For himself, and for others

Pain management even after your injury is healed

Mystery syndrome which causes pain worse than childbirth AND amputation that's baffling docs

Power of Pain: 'Nervemember' video list

*MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

New MS drug Lemtrada approved by FDA, but it’s not for everyone

Acupuncture for Multiple Sclerosis - New Findings

Drumming Away The Pain Of Multiple Sclerosis

Neuroimaging Study Sheds Light On Mechanisms of Cognitive Fatigue in MS

Soil Based Bacteria May Cause Multiple Sclerosis

Trial MS medicine changed my life, says patient

New Therapy for MS on Horizon?

FDA Approves Multiple Sclerosis Stem Cell Trial

Imaging Shows Increased Iron in Brains of MS Patients

Controversial Theory Behind Possible MS Cause Refuted: Canadian researchers report that blocked veins in head, neck don't prompt autoimmune disease

*FEATURED BLOG POSTS

‘Tis the Season – Don’t “Give” til it Hurts

by Wendy of Transform Your Chronic Life

I Am Not a Slob, I have an Invisible Illness

by Lisa Copen of Rest Ministries