Happy New Year!

Wow, can you believe it's 2008? Wasn't it just 2000 and we were worried about world-wide computer failures? Or maybe it was 1986 and I was shopping for a bow for my hair like Fergie wore? Or maybe it was 1976 and I was planning for my first trip to Europe? Yes time flies.

So to celebrate the passage of time as we tick towards the work=shopping of our play - lets start with some mini-interviews of some people very involved in chronic pain.

First, let's start with Dr. Chris Spanswick. Dr. Spanswick is with the Calgary Health Region and practices as a pain physician at the Chronic Pain Centre. He is also the Medical Lead for the Regional Pain Program. Dr. Spanswick, and his associated Dr. Chris Main, actually wrote the text book "Pain". You can see Dr. Spanswick's picture on the right hand column, as he is on our advisory committee. Here is what he has to say.

Dr. Chris Spanswick

Q: You started out as an anesthetist. Can you tell us what led you into the field of pain medicine from there?

Chris Spanswick: Having a boss who was a pain in the but, I was looking for a cure! My first boss in anaesthesia was interested in chronic pain. It was down hill from then on.

Q: How has the practice of treating pain changed from when you first started out to the present day?

CS: People get better! Doctors don't carry the burden on their own anymore. Slowly people actually believe chronic pain exists! Needles are used more judiciously.


Q: Can you define chronic pain, for anyone who might not really understand the term?

CS: Living with a fire alarm going off all the time.

Q: What frustrates you most about the field of pain medicine or treating pain?

CS: Lack of appreciation by non-pain colleagues. Unrealistic expectations given to patients by others. The promise of cures by those who are only good at wallet-ectomies. More money...................for research and treatment resources. Having said that we have more than anyone else I know.

Q: Do you have any words of advice for people out there who are suffering chronic pain?

CS: Trust me I'm a doctor! Take each day as it comes. Keep active if not physically (and that's important) keep active mentally and socially. You are what you do. So make sure you don't do nothing but you do something.

Don't trust people who say they can cure you especially if they make a lot of money from you!

Q: How did you get involved in the Pain Diaries Advisory Committee?

CS: I was told to and I always do as I am told! Nobody argues with Deb (and lives!)

Q: Okay, so when I get an idea I must admit that I'm like a dog with a bone and I won't let go! What sort of impact do you feel a play like this could have? Can art and science help each other out, or will they always just be opposite sides of the brain?

CS: It will get pain talked about. It's real and wrecks people lives. They don't imagine this stuff. Perhaps then politicians will listen and take it seriously too. Nobody does until it either happens to them or someone they love.

Q: What do you hope that people involved with and/or viewing this play and documentary will get from the experience?

CS: I hope they laugh and remember the next time they meet someone who has chronic pain. I hope they bug their MLA.

Q: Thank you. Tune in weekly for more interviews. If you have questions or comments, please send them in. We do not guarantee to answer them all on line but will read your correspondence. Please remember that you should get all your medical advice from a trusted primary care physician and NOT the Internet!

Raindrops on Roses and Timelines for Plays...

Yes, the holiday season is upon us. Where has the year gone?

Well, for me, here's where it's gone. I work a full time job and write at night and on weekends. I squeeze in visits with friends and family. This year also included two moves (am I crazy or what) but now I have landed permanently - barring flood. And I shouldn't joke about floods, because the year also included finding our offices at the Chronic Pain Centre under about 3 inches of water. And can you believe it - here it is December and the flood was June 20 - and we are still undergoing some renovations from that event. We've had some turnover at the Centre, so I've been working alone for a good part of the year, and getting very far behind, hence my absence from this site. But now we're put back together, I have a co-worker again and we're caught up, I'm almost finished the interview process, I've written another book and I'm working on finishing the play. Now I see where the time went.

But this year will forever be etched in my memory. It is the year I met some incredible people and learned so much about pain. To hear someone tell me how they wouldn't change their pain experience because they came out the other end understanding what was more important in life than they did before - how can that not affect you. Or even to hear someone still struggling with the journey, still trying to find some meaning and purpose in their lives. I have had sleepless nights, I have cried when listening to interviews, and I have written some scenes which I think have captured a bit of this journey.

I have also learned a lot about grant proposals and fundraising (our goal is $100,000 to $150,000 thousand - so if you know anyone with lots of money to give....)

But for now, I want to wish you all a wonderful and happy holiday season and let you know what our new timeline is for the next year, so you can keep track of our progress.

And don't forget - if you have anything to say - you can leave your comments here!

TIMELINE

Blog:

January, February and March - interviews with the advisory committee and pain experts from around the world.

April - Summer - notes on workshops, auditions, fundraising and everything else involved in mounting a production!


The Play

January - June: complete interviews and writing the play. Work with Advisory committee on draft of play. Re-write and re-write and re-write some more!

July/August: Workshop the play. Details to be announced.

Fall 2008: The opening of The Pain Diaries - Details to be announced.


The Documentary

Filming will take place at various events throughout the year. Again, if you have any comments or ideas, please post them here and we will be in touch.


Thanks to you all for your support!

MIA writer returns

Who knew that a working sabbatical could turn into so much work? 8 shows a week, rehearsals, certain responsibilities on Vancouver Island & back in Calgary.

We've also been delighted by visits from many welcome guests - friends & family - and have made it a priority to explore as much as we can of this part of Canada while we're here.

All this means that Deb has been holding down the creative and organizational fort on this project for months now, as I regularly attempt to wrap my head around the interviews that have been conducted and the master plan of what it is we're trying to do.

The funny thing is that the issue of chronic pain keeps intruding unbidden. From colleagues working onstage with long term injuries that don't heal to guests/relatives who have to deal with the daily trials of advancing age ... I'm presented with more faces of chronic pain.

I was asked - seriously - what I thought of euthanasia. Of course, during the course of a dinner party, one tries not to delve too deeply into serious matters, but the thought keeps bouncing around in my head, occasionally rising to the surface: when does it become too much?
- when you're 90 years old, untreatable medical conditions and the morphine patch no longer even seems to take the edge off?
- when you're a young mother, wheelchair bound and facing surgery that still may not provide relief?
- when you're in the prime of life and an injury suddenly renders you partially disabled and you can't remember a time without pain?

AS collection and compilation of research for this project continues, I find myself worrying about how we're going to craft it all into one story. But that will be for another day ...

Hal

Life Goes On...

A little rain has to fall...




Did you hear the one about the pain clinic that flooded? Oh yeah, that one - it wasn't very funny but it was true. Yes, we came to work one day a couple of weeks ago only to find our office was now a wading pool. And we'll be out of it for at least a month. But thanks to the kind hearts of other tennants in our building, we have managed to find clinics to see patients and desks to put staff at. But I'm using this as my excuse to be massively disorganized right now. Yes, half my pain diaries stuff is locked in my file cabinet at work - which is in the middle of my office probably with my desk and chair on top of it. Luckily, all my interview and research stuff is wtih me all the time, so I can keep writing and working on that part of it.



But it kind of speaks to the fortitude of our staff again. There are certain specialties in medicine that people are called to, and chronic pain seems to be one of those specialties. They are doubling and tripling up desks and stepping over each other's feet, but patient care always comes first.

One thing I have learned so far while doing interviews is that a lot of patients have been frustrated by their medical care in relation to their chronic pain. It takes years to get to see the right kind of specialist and lots of other tried and failed medications and treatments. But it's not because doctors don't care. Quite the opposite really. It's amazing how much doctors do care. What one of the big problems seems to be is training. And because pain has not been well understood, doctors don't get a lot of training in how to deal with it. Some get none. So not only do the patients get frustrated, but the doctors get frustrated.

That is why projects like this are so important. This is a great opportunity for outreach into the community, not only for our friends and families to gain some understanding, but maybe for the medical professionals to get a new perspective on pain too. You see, these people I work with that have this calling also want to be evangelists. They want to get the word out there. And the more people that know and understand pain, the quicker treatmetn can e provided, the better off everything will be, right?

Chronic Pain and Memory Loss

From the Calgary Herald – Monday, May 21, 2007

Chronic Pain May Lead to Memory Loss

Study reveals shorter attention span in sufferers
JODIE SINNEMA EDMONTON JOURNAL, EDMONTON

When Deana Adams sliced her left hand on a sharp piece of steel at work more than three years ago, a doctor gave her four simple stitches, unaware that the nerve between her thumb and index finger had been severed.

The pain since then — zinging like a shock from an electric fence and running up her arm to her shoulder, neck and head — has been at times so severe it has affected her marriage, interrupted her sleep and stolen the good memory she prided herself in.
“I forget things really easily,” says Adams, 41, who works as a surgical processor at the University of Alberta hospital, sterilizing, decontaminating and organizing hospital equipment. “The pain takes over. It sort of just swarms in and says, ‘ Here I am, listen to me,’ and you want to do anything to relieve it.”

Adams’s memory problems are common among people with chronic pain, says new research from the University of Alberta.

Bruce Dick, a clinical psychologist at the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre at the U of A hospital, discovered two-thirds of people with chronic pain had some measure of cognitive impairment that shortened their attention span and made it difficult to remember things. Half of those people had significant memory issues, especially when multi-tasking.

“Chronic pain is something that is disruptive,” said Dick, whose research paper appears in this month’s edition of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia. “Part of the rationale for doing this study is we have some fairly good medical treatments aimed at helping relieve pain. What’s more difficult sometimes is affecting the bigger picture of people’s lives, so trying to lesson the disability or helping improve people’s quality of life.”

Knowing that chronic-pain sufferers may have difficulty remembering certain details during their day, pain therapists may be able to develop new strategies to help patients overcome the gaps.

Adams works through her memory lapses with cue cards that list the intricacies of putting together full surgical sets at work. If she’s called away from a task, these notes keep her on track.

At home, Adams’s attention has also suffered. She used to plow through paperbacks in hours, but now picks up a half-read book and can’t remember the plot line. She forgets conversations and birthday cards she’s sent.

“Emotionally, when it first happened, I got depressed really bad,” she said. “When you’re in pain, you don’t want anyone to touch you. You don’t sleep. You don’t eat. You’re constantly on guard.”

Since then, she has cut back on her medication, but still takes 27 different pills throughout the day.

Dick hopes his study will provide “some validation for the people who suffer with these complex pain problems. It can be easy for a patient to jump to a conclusion that ‘I’m crazy.’ ”

Wow - a week of rest. How cool is that. I've been doing research for the play, interviewing two, three sometimes four people a week. It's exhausting...for many reasons. First of all, trying to fit this in around full time jobs is always challenging, just ask any of us on the Advisory Committee for this project...or for that matter, just ask any artist in Canada. Most of us work day jobs.

So what do we all do during the day? I'm glad you asked.

Dr. John Clark is an renowned and respected expert in the field of treating pain. He is the Medical Director for the Calgary Health Region Chronic Pain Centre. On weekends he is usually off somewhere presenting papers, giving talks, teaching...and sometimes I think he fits in a ski weekend.

Dr. Chris Spanswick, also a well respected expert in the field of pain management, who wrote the textbook "Pain". He is also the Medical Lead for the Calgary Health Region Regional Pain Program and an avid hockey fan.

Dr. Paul Taezner is a clinical psychologist and founder of the Chronic Pain Centre Pilot Project (with Dr. Pam Barton). He is also in demand and often off presenting or teaching somewhere in the world, while juggling his duties with the Calgary Health Region, the Chronic Pain Centre and seeing patients.

Terry Kane, though retired from traveling with the Calgary Flames, is still a busy man. He is a physiotherapist at the Calgary Health Region Chronic Pain Centre and also maintains a private practice. He also presents and lectures, as well as spending time with his family.

Hal Kerbes normally would be in Calgary running his company Shadow Productions, writing and probably acting as well. But this summer he is in Chemainus, BC, at the theatre festival. You can see him starring in two different plays if you're out there. Plus he's still juggling the writing and trying to do some research for the play as well. You have to admire someone who can learn two plays at once and actually say the right lines on the right night!

And me, I'm at the Calgary Health Region Chronic Pain Centre during the daytime, faithfully transcribing medical reports. At night, I turn into a writer. I am currently working on editing my sixth murder mystery (Kate Carpenter Mysteries), selling a medical thriller (Mind Games), finishing a novel about a mother and her two daughters (Finding Evangeline) and writing a play that has affected my life deeply.

So there, that's the first reason it's exhausting. And the second is the emotional impact. I find it interesting that I thought as I researched this I would be able to distance myself from the emotions. But I underestimated the power of the stories that I am hearing.

And I forgot that us writers are kind of crazy people too. These characters float around in our heads and sometimes they become very real (to us) and you begin to feel the emotions as if they were your own. I have been known to drive down the Deerfoot in tears, sobbing because I've just written a scene in my head where my characters from my murder myster series have had a huge fight. I've laughed out loud in very inappropriate places when I've come up with a funny scene. Now you know why some of those really famous writer's drank so much...coping with all these extra emotions from all these imaginary characters!

But seriously, again I want to thank everyone who has shared their stories with me so far, and I look very forward to hearing more as the summer moves on!

Counting Blessings

It's my birthday. Yep, the same week as Shakespeare and Carol Burnett and Barbra Streisand. It's a lot to live up to. And I'm now closer to 50 than 40, but I managed to get this far relatively unscathed. I've got four scars from surgery, nothing life threatening and no organs gone I can't live happily without. My bones are strong but I need bifocals. My skin is acting like it did when I was sixteen again - not a good thing. My knees creak and it's costs me an average of $40.00 a month to remain a natural blond.

But there is nothing wrong with me that a little primrose oil or Advil won't fix. And now that I have started doing research interviews for the play, I am incredibly thankful for that. I could have woken up from any of my surgeries with permanent pain, many have. My mom has migraines, I could have inherited that, most do. My knees creak but they still hold me up and take me through life one step at a time, and I can flex my neck and look up into the sky to make a wish on the first star of the night. Not everyone can still do that.

So I am thankful for everything I have. And I am amazed at the courage that people with chronic pain conditions show us. They have pain all the time, but they get up every morning, they face the day and they, too, put one foot in front of the other. And I'm sure they do it with less complaining than I do, most mornings.

I remember reading The Shell Seekers, and one of the children asked their mother how she was. She replied that she was breathing when she woke up that morning, so it was a good day. It's hard to be grateful for the little things, but I think we should all try hard to do so and let the people who are struggling with pain know how much we admire their courage.

And that we believe them.