People living with chronic pain, among compelling stories of 2011

December 19, 2011 » Online

Dear CPC Members,

The article below by Sharon Kirkey was published yesterday on Canada.com and has been picked upby several Post media outlets. In addition to the article, Sharon speaks about the series in a videowhich can also be viewed on the site.

People living with chronic pain, among compelling stories of 2011
By Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia News December 19, 2011

My most memorable story by far this year was a special series on people living with chronic pain,and their struggles to find help and hope.

We spoke to Canadians from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia's south shore — unforgettable and remarkablepeople who were plunged into a world of pain as a result of disease, surgery or a split-second's distractionat a traffic intersection.

The series explored a massive, invisible problem and sadly neglected area of our health-care system: thelack of formal pain education in medical schools, the stigma surrounding prescribing opioids for non-cancer pain,and the devastating waits for treatment.

I met physicians and scientists who have committed their careers to helping people in pain, experts now pushingtirelessly to have chronic pain recognized as a disease as real as cancer or heart disease.

The response from readers was overwhelming: "I am so very appreciative that someone, somewhere isacknowledging us," one Ottawa woman wrote.

The articles "made me burst into tears and sob uncontrollably with each word read," wrote a28-year-old woman from Victoria. "Even writing this email to you, I am in pain."

Following the series' publication, Conservative Senator Kelvin Ogilvie said Canadians must begin addressingthis "major issue" — starting with the acknowledgment that chronic pain, even when there is no clear physical source for it, is real.

Over and over, people living with chronic pain described the torture of not being believed.

A reader from Edmonton who is living with complex regional pain syndrome, one of the most devastatingpain conditions known to man, wrote that: "No one but another person who has chronic pain can possiblyunderstand how bad it is."

We hope our series helped open a window to their suffering.
Original Story at Canada.com