Posts Tagged ‘Dr. Lynn R. Webster’
There Are Real-Life Superheroes Among Us
Challenge to Stay Optimistic It’s easy to become jaded. As a physician, I have spent decades dealing with sickness. I have cared for people with intractable pain and addiction. I have witnessed their pain, and I have seen them suffer stigma, judgment, and rejection because of their disease. I’ve watched policymakers motivated by political concerns…
Read MoreCongresswoman Barbara Lee’s Persistence: An Example for People in Pain
Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s Mission Congresswoman Barbara Lee is the U.S. Representative for California’s 13th congressional district. She spent 10 years working to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). On June 29, 2017, “In a surprise move, the House Appropriations Committee approved bill language to end the 2001 authorization of the use…
Read MoreAssociation Is Not Causation
The Court of Justice of the European Union’s Dubious Decision CBS News reported on June 21, 2017, “The highest court of the European Union ruled Wednesday that courts can consider whether a vaccination led to someone developing an illness even when there is no scientific proof.” According to CNN, this ruling means “if the development…
Read MoreWomen, Opioids, Benzodiazepines and Pain: A Potential Deadly Combination
When we think of the segments of the population who have been most affected by the opioid epidemic, we tend to think of poor, unemployed people who live in rural areas. In September of 2016, I published a blog called “Tough Times Feed America’s Opioid Epidemic: What You Need To Know.” In it, I…
Read MoreDanielle Byron Henry
Danielle Byron Henry’s Story Danielle was born in 1981. At the age of eight, she began experiencing migraine headaches. One of the most common sources of pain, migraines are three times more common in women than in men. For most people with migraines, the pain is manageable with minimal medication, control of sleep, and a…
Read MoreOpen Letter to Secretary Tom Price
Mother Jones reports, “On a listening tour about the opioid epidemic in West Virginia on Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price stressed the urgency of tackling the staggering overdose problem, saying ‘we’re losing people every single day across the nation, so we don’t have time to wait.’ ” Secretary Tom Price’s View…
Read MoreUnderstanding the Roots to the Opioid Crisis
Every time I hear about an opioid-related overdose death, I can only feel empathy for the family of the decedent. Whether it’s the result of using street drugs that are laced with fentanyl or carfentanil, as in the case of a 21-year-old woman from Virginia, or a person in pain who accidentally overdoses, each death…
Read More“Step Therapy” Puts Insurance Companies Ahead of Patients
This article was originally published in the Salt Lake City Tribune. A Process Called Step Therapy Gary developed excruciating pain in his shoulder and arm following a cervical disc herniation several years ago. He was athletic and otherwise in good health, but the pain is now disabling. For years, Gary was prescribed pregabalin for…
Read MoreThe Survey Says…the CDC Opioid Guideline Needs to Be Honestly Assessed
One-Year Anniversary of the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline On the one-year anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) opioid prescribing guideline, an online survey of patients, doctors, and healthcare providers conducted by Pain News Network and the International Pain Foundation (iPain) found that the guideline has “harmed pain patients, reduced access to…
Read MoreAn Epiphany
Myra Christopher is the PAINS Director and someone I’m proud to call a friend. She has given me permission to re-post her blog, An Epiphany, here. It was first published at PainsProject.org. This morning I was a guest on Central Standard, a program which airs on the local Kansas City NPR station. The program’s focus…
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