Day: 12/01/2015

Do you need a laugh?

http://distractify.com/humor/2015/11/28/jason-lords-name-in-vain?utm_content=inf_11_53_2&tse_id=INF_d5699c9c3d26470796ea1fa86c221225

Alex Baze @bazecraze
In the beginning, there was nothing. And God said, “lemme ruin this.”

side-eye spice @goldengateblond
God: Babies will come out your vag.
Eve: …
God: You’ll feed them with your boobs.
Eve: …
God: …
Eve: Dude. All I did was eat an apple.

David Hughes @david8hughes
God: done?
Noah: yea
G: whats this
Noah proudly: a swing set
G: u built a park. I asked for an ark
N: a what?
G: a boat
N: say boat then

chuuch @ch000ch
god: u gotta build a boat
noah: can’t u build ur own boat.. i mean, ur god
god: [nervously] no i can i just wanna see if u know how

@matt___nelson
JESUS: so I’m u
GOD: yes
JESUS: and ur me
GOD: yes
JESUS: I don’t get it
GOD: I do
JESUS: how can one of us get it & not the other
GOD: whoa

Dan Wilbur @DanWilbur
When I have my exit interview with God as I’m expelled from Heaven, I’m totally not holding back when I tell Him my feelings on allergies.

Crunchy

DSC08002 (3)

Do you feel weird about photographing strangers? You know, without their permission?

The parent that was with this beautiful child gave me a sideways glance, so I only took this one photo.  Quickly. 🙂

But she was having so much fun crunching the leaves, I couldn’t resist raising my camera. Check out these other photos of playing in the fall leaves:

https://chronicallychronic88.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/to-all-my-friends-and-followers-having-a-rough-time-xox/

(Photo taken 11/29/2015.)

La La La!

When I had Verizon Wireless (with limited data), I could only use music therapy for a short amount of time during the day. Now, with Century Link, I’ve got my own play list through my Music Therapy category.

Considering that my only other source for music is the cheap ($30) DVD player I got at Walmart, I’m so glad I now have access to music whenever I want.

And if you think music therapy is just about distraction (like Russell Stover’s chocolates and cream cheese brownies), read this:

Relearning how to breathe

Let me translate that for you

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/solutions-heroin-crisis_5655f0afe4b079b28189efcd

Famed Historian Sees 19th-Century Solution To Current Heroin Crisis

We need to focus on preventing new addictions and using the harm-reduction approach to treat current addicts.

It sounds like a good plan, right? But let me translate this for pain patients:

Any person who experiences pain — whether acute or chronic — and seeks medical assistance will now be given an ice pack and told to buy a heating pad.  Whenever a patient complains of pain, doctors will automatically think that patient is a drug addict. Instead of looking for a source of the pain, doctors will refer patients to addiction clinics.

You will begin to hear doctors say:  There’s nothing I can do — just accept your pain and get back to work (you big sissy).

http://nationalpainreport.com/accepting-pain-more-important-than-reducing-pain-intensity-because-opioids-are-harmful-docs-write-in-nejm-commentary-8828494.html

People suffering in chronic pain need to learn to accept it because “achieving a balance between the benefits and potential harms of opioids has become a matter of national importance,” wrote two influential doctors who advocate for changing opioid prescribing practices in a commentary for the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine…

I usually learn more from the comment section than from the articles, and this comment section has some really great comments. 🙂 And here’s the NEJM article (looks like they went to the dark side):

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1507136#t=article

For three decades, there has been hope that more liberal use of opioids would help reduce the number of Americans with unrelieved chronic pain.

I’m sorry, but how would that even be possible?  Are opioids supposed to do handstands and perform miracles? No matter your dosage of opioids, it’s unlikely that they will provide “unrelieved chronic pain.”  That’s not even possible. (Unless you didn’t suffer from chronic pain to begin with.)

I was reading an article at MedPage Today about doctors with addictions. One said he suffered with unrelieved and undiagnosed chronic pain for 10 years. He finally got some painkillers and got addicted. Then, he detoxed and now he’s “pain-free.” He says he suffered from hyperalgesia. Maybe it’s because I’ve never experienced this phenomenon that I can’t understand what this doctor is talking about — his story doesn’t make sense. It sounds like some other doctor convinced him that the opioids were the cause of his pain, and he believed it. Almost like a placebo effect?

Instead, it produced what has been termed an epidemic of prescription-opioid abuse, overdoses, and deaths — and no demonstrable reduction in the burden of chronic pain…

Really?  It’s going to be hilarious, ten years from now, when the experts learn the results of the opioid war — when they have to finally admit how much opioids have helped patients survive. There will be lots more people on disability, more homeless, more suicides. Yes, and more overdoses, just with different drugs.

And when any “expert” deems 16,000 deaths out of tens of millions of opioid users to be an epidemic, I tend to stop listening. In other words, I didn’t read any more of this article — I don’t mind wasting time, but not on crap like this.

Even though I didn’t read the whole article, let me translate it for you:

Pain patients:  It’s all your fault.  Signed, the Medical Industry

Can addiction be cured?

http://www.painmedicinenews.com/ViewArticle.aspx?d=Policy%2b%26%2bManagement&d_id=83&i=November+2015&i_id=1244&a_id=34181&tab=MostEmailed

“The difference between a patient in chronic pain and a person who is addicted is, with addiction, we expect a cure,” Dr. Lewis said. “We expect the patient will recover to the point that they can maintain some cured state—even if they’re on methadone; the goal is to integrate them back into society.

“That doesn’t happen with chronic pain,” she continued. “Chronic pain is progressive. It’s associated with a multisystem injury to the body, and it’s not going to be cured. So what we want to do is give that person the most optimal tools, in spite of what has happened to them. It’s a big difference in approach.” …

This is a good point, but I’m not sure that we should expect those who suffer from addiction to be “cured.”  Maybe “recovered” is a better term. Because I’ve had addictions that I’ve overcome, although I can’t say that I’m “addiction-free.” After all, I’m human, not a robot. (C’mon, sugar isn’t as bad as heroin, right?)

So, if someone’s using methadone to successfully treat a drug addiction, does that mean they’re “cured”?  Here’s what I’m saying:  Some drug addictions will require life-long management, so forcing the expectation of a “cure” on addicts is not the way to go. Just like the pain management industry should stop telling patients that their pain can be “cured.”