WE COME TO THE END OF THIS TREATMENT PROGRAM - WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

"If you want to live your whole life free from pain, you must become either a God or else a corpse". -Menander

Todays blog I seem driven by quotes. I have included so many in my talks over the years and have a passel of them (for you young folks under the age of 100, passel means a lot). I don't know why but most of the points I wanted to make in todays blog , every time I thought of what I wanted to say, up popped a quote in my head. 

For instance. 

When it comes to where we are in my treatment. we have reached a plateau. My pain, what is left of the CRPS portion, doesn't seem to want to go away. It apparently has grown too attached to me to leave. 

Am I shocked? Not really. When I had my low-dose ketamine treatments (2003 and 2007) even though I got into almost complete remission, about 85 to 90%, it never completely went away. I have had this disease for over 34 years now and it is full body. It has had a long time to sink its claws deep into every crack and crevice in every system, cell, and fiber of me. 

Am I disappointed? Absolutely. Every time I try a new treatment of medication I do so with the hope of being free of this monster. 

Will it set me back? Let me put it this way ... 

"Retreat, hell! We're just advancing in another direction."--Oliver Prince Smith

After all, we made great progress with the Hyperbaric treatment. Thanks to Dr Spiegel my CRPs pain is down significantly. Mainly I have the CRPS pain now in my left leg from my knee down to my foot, in my right foot, in my eyes and ears, and then of course the allodynia issue. But, if you had seen my pain chart when we started you would be amazed. My darkened areas, those places where my CRPS was, was pretty much everywhere; both legs all the way, both arms and hands, eyes, ears, face, and of course back, neck, and a few other places. 

So compare then to now!

I have also cut my meds down some as well. That in itself is a good thing as all of you know. I am so sick of taking medication. I have been on them for so many years now and even though I have regular tests on my liver and have blood-work done, I do worry about the effects of all of that.  Not to mention I am just, like many of you, a little over the side effects of some of these things; the tiredness, the sluggishness, the , sleep problems, and, well, other issues. 

But having said that ...

One of my favorite quote and one that fairly well describes me and well, I guess my stubbornness (I am a Taurus after all) is this quote attributed to Calvin Coolidge;

"Nothing in the world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than the unsuccessful person with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

So, like so many of you I forge ahead because I am too stubborn to turn around. I once was told that I was like a rhino. That they have tough skin and can't turn around, they can only charge forward, can't go sideways, something like that. I hope when they said "tough skin" they meant I was tough and not that my skin looks like a rhino's! Either way, that is what I am going with.

George Patton once said; "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."

Some of us are fluffier than others and probably bounce a little more. (this is evidenced by anyone who has watched WIPEOUT on Fox-TV).  A silly show to be sure but a hoot to watch. 

Of course, there is always the alternate view as espoused by Homer in the Odyssey, "The lot of man - to suffer and die". 

Cheery guy. Unfortunately over the years I have met quite a few patients who feel this way. This disease has hit them, it isn't fair, their life is over; their Doctor told them they are the worst case he has ever seen so they are sure it is so and their live is surely over and they will never get better. They can no longer do what they did, are not who they once were, don't want to hear what they can be or what they might do in the future because they become so mired in what once was. 

At this point it isn't about the physical pain, it is about dealing with the emotional pain and the damage it has done to your psyche.  

So often patients focus on the past, they focus on what they have lost. 

"Never say of anything I have lost it, only say that I have given it back."--Epictetus

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."--Kenji Miyazawa

I realize it isn't easy to focus on the future, to accept what has happened and accept the new reality. But until we do, we cannot move forward. Until we can do, we cannot hope to begin healing. 

When it comes to chronic pain, especially long-term chronic pain, we may have to give up some of our past in order to gain our future. But if we don't we will find ourselves mired in the past and unable to move forward. 

"Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak. Sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go."--Anonymous

 Do more than just accept where you are. Move forward. Seek out information, find ways to decrease your pain, find ways to help others, seek out others and together form groups to help others who have to daily deal with chronic pain. 

"Many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little."--Plutarch

It is easy to sit on the sidelines, to let someone else do the work, form the group, gather the people together, form fundraisers, educate the medical community and public, and inform the school systems about our disease. It is much harder to participate, to be involved. To actually lead. Don't think for a minute that those who step into these leadership roles do so because their pain is less. They do it because they are driven to make a difference. 

"Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing."--William Feather

The choice you get to make every day is what you will do today. Your pain will be there anyway, whether you sit and do nothing or whether you reach out and make a difference. You decide. It could make all the difference for you, and for many others. 

In the coming weeks I am going to begin a new blog, a new version of PAIN IS A FOUR LETTER WORD. It will be one for CRPS/RSD. Because so many people have responded positively to the information contained in tis blog when I discussed CRPS, I decided the need was there for one where I could pass along information, share new websites, updates from the website, answer questions sent in to us on the site, etc. 

I will put an announcement on the website in the WHAT'S NEW section about it so keep an eye out for it!

I want to thank Dr Spiegel of National Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for all his help in answering questions posed here by patients, and myself, in putting this blog together. I also want to thank Susan Rodrguez of Rapid Recovery Hyperbarics for her help along the way. 

I also want to thank everyone who wrote in, sending in their questions and comments along the way. They helped move the discussion along and provide some interesting questions and answers!

So in closing let me leave you with this thought from Pakenham Beatty;

"By your own soul, learn to live. If some men thwart you, take no heed. If some men hate you, have no care. Sing your song. Dream your dream. Hope your hope and pray your prayer."

Peace, Keith Orsini

American RSDHope

www.RSDHope.org

HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY - END OF WEEK THREE

Ok guys, it is Saturday and the end of week three. 

Last weekend, I believe I stated that I thought this third week would be a big week. A week of some big changes. I thought I would hit the wall and I surely did. I also have been able to get over the wall and am coming down the other side. 

Have you seen the new version of the show AMERICAN GLADIATOR'S? At the end of the show they have to run a gauntlet of obstacles. The last thing they face, when their bodies are fairly exhausted, is having to climb up a downward moving treadmill and then crash through a wall. 

That is kind of how I feel. I have run the gauntlet, and Monday I hit the treadmill (or the Wall), and by Wednesday I was breaking through the wall. I still have a ways to go which I hope will happen over the course of the coming week, but I am considerably better today than I was on Monday/Tuesday. 

With some treatments there is an immediate result, good or bad.  Anyone going through this treatment has to look at it as if you are doing a marathon though and not a sprint. You have to understand from the outset that it is going to take however long it takes and you are going to stick with it to the end and beyond. Remember, sometimes the best results aren't seen for weeks afterwards.

How does HBOT actually work on CRPS?

Let me quote an article you can find on our website;

"Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a new therapy for many individuals with CRPS/RSD. Interestingly, however, this therapy is not new at all."  (Doctor Allan Spiegel)

"Spiegel says that HBOT supersaturates tissues that have been deprived of oxygen because of the swelling of a limb. Specifically, saturation levels of oxygen in blood and tissues increase 10 to 20 times while in the chamber. Further, HBOT has a tendency to constrict vessels by about 15%, which causes a decrease in swelling from the edema present in most people with RSD. "With HBOT,"Spiegel says,"we are looking at long-term improvement, reduction in pain, improvement in sleep -- and reduction in depression, because pain causes depression."

Susan Rodriguez, a certified hyperbaric specialist from San Bernadino, California, "With RSD, pain is read through sensors in the sympathetic nervous system. (the sympathetic nervous system is what is activated in phantom limb pain, for example). "Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, however, can make the switch in the brain back to the central nervous system," Rodriguez says. Under a doctor's direction, she treats both the affected limb and the brain by different atmospheric pressures when the patient is inside the chamber."

"Different undersea depths work on different parts of the body," she explains. "Deeper depths (up to 33 to 45 feet undersea) work on tissue and bone, while milder hyperbarics (such as 18 to 24 feet undersea) work on the brain. Since we are working on both things, I take patients to all those levels. Almost always, the first symptom to come is the last to go. And then the symptoms are gone!"

You can read the whole article by going to HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY, CAN IT RELIEVE YOUR PAIN? By Patricia McAdams.

So what are some of the things you should look for in a clinic? 

In that same article cited above they offer some tips;

Choose a reputable center for your treatment, where your therapists understand all the risks and take all the safety precautions necessary to avoid a problem. 

A reputable center will;

1) Be staffed by a physician and other healthcare professionals certified by the Hyperbaric and Undersea Medical Society.

2) Require a Doctor's prescription before giving therapy.

3) Have two or more staff members in the building at all times in the event one has an emergency. 

4)  Have strict rules about allowing nothing whatsoever in the chamber with the patient that could be combustible. 

I have added some new links to the American RSDHope website section on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Pop by and check it out. 

Now, to some questions. 

Some have asked about books regarding HBOT. Here is an excellent link;

HYPERBARIC CLINIC OF SACRAMENTO - BOOK LIST

Also,

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF HBOT?

Someone asked me what the contraindications are for HBOT;

WHAT THINGS/SITUATIONS/DISEASES/CONDITIONS can present a problem for HBOT?

I hope that brings me up to date. Feel free to drop me a line, add your comment below about HBOT, CRPS, or just say hi!

Peace, Keith