Apr 19, 2019
Author: Nora Mork
People with a chronic pain are constantly facing obstacles and difficulties that they otherwise wouldn’t. However, this doesn’t have to mean that it’s impossible to have a full and satisfying life even with the chronic pain.
You just have to learn to live with it properly and avoid making these common mistakes:
Allowing Fear To Rule Your Life
Fear is understandable in this situation but what is not is allowing it to rule your life. You are still you and there are always ways to fix this situation. There are medications available and many other things that could help you overcome your pain and have a regular life. Certainly, nothing will go back to being completely normal but maybe you should embrace your new normal instead.
Misusing the Pain Meds
Pain medication should never be used to completely block your pain. This is impossible because those pain medications become ineffective over time. They can be really helpful but it all depends on how you use them and what you expect will happen because of them.
Pain medications can only remove about 50 to 60 percent of pain. You’ll have to use other things as well to support the meds. You have to learn to live with a certain amount of pain.
You should also avoid using the pain meds to do more and get through certain things. You can’t move too fast in your recovery process and end up having more pain than before. Stick to the schedule and what your doctor told you.
Overwhelming yourself when you are feeling okay
At times you’ll feel a lot better – almost like normal – and you’ll realize that these are the times that you can do things like you used to. Soon, you’ll increase the amount of work you do during “good times”.
But this will only increase your amount of pain and result in you not being able to fix it later. Never overwhelm yourself when you are feeling good. Take frequent breaks and rest often – sit or lay down, change your position as necessary and don’t do the extremely difficult things.
Find the right kind of help
“Pain management counselors can really help you learn pain management techniques and how to move on with your life properly. Don’t think that the relief can only come from pills. You have to learn other, more effective and natural ways of managing your pain. And you can really learn a lot from these professionals,” says Hannah Thomas, a psychology blogger at Academized and Australian help.
But, you also have to learn to rely on yourself – physicians are there for you but they are there to teach you how to handle yourself and your pain, not to be available to you any time of day or night. They also can’t always understand what you are going through.
This is why you have to understand to rely on yourself but also find a support group that can help you with their experiences and so on.
Not learning about your patterns
As you go through the process of being in a severe pain through feeling just small amounts of pain, you will learn to understand and recognize your patterns. For instance, when it happens and what happens. Ask yourself whether some fears or certain emotions make things better or worse for you. If some people have an effect on your pain – be it a good one or a bad one.
Then, you can learn to avoid of milden these effects. This is a great way to learn to live – in part – with the pain.
Thinking that you can’t go on
“Everyone sometimes feels like they can’t keep living in pain and they feel desperate but they are wrong. People can survive anything and still have a full and happy life with pain.
So, learn to live with it and overcome it in difficult situations,” says Milo Banks, a health writer at Big Assignments and State of writing.
Failing to refill your prescription
For one, you need to remember to always refill your prescription – meds aren’t the only pain management that you should use but they should still be a part of it. Failing to do so will only result in your recovery slowing down.
You should also remember to refill it in time – for example, never let your meds run out during the weekend or holidays, get a prescription before that. The doctors have their own lives which they shouldn’t have to stop in order to get to you because of your mistakes.
Having chronic pain is scary but it’s also possible to have a good life with this illness. Hopefully, you’ll avoid these mistakes and have a good life.
About the author: Nora Mork is a health and psychology writer and editor at UK Writings. She helps people by sharing her experience in the articles at Boom Essays and Essay Roo blogs.
Apr 17, 2019
This article was first published on ESO website | Author: Giuseppe Reale, MD – ESO YSPR Committee
Same stroke, same treatment and lower limb weakness, but forget about upper motor neurons!
Sometimes it seems that stroke treatment is all about time, tissue and recanalization, whatever it takes. However, it is important to remember that danger might be just around the corner, even after a successful recanalization.
A 66-year old man was carried to our Emergency Department 4 hours after the acute onset of right hemiplegia and aphasia. CT-Angiography (CTA) showed a M1 left middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and the patient underwent to systemic thrombolysis followed by mechanical thrombectomy in general anesthesia with right femoral access. When the patient was admitted to the Stroke Unit, he presented only right lower limb weakness, being able to flex the thigh at hip, but not to extend the leg at knee. The right patellar tendon reflex was absent, while the left was elicitable. The segmental weakness pattern and the reflex asymmetry suggested a femoral neuropathy. CTA of lower extremities excluded the presence of iliacus hematoma or femoral artery aneurysm. The patient had a spontaneous recovery of the neurological deficits within one week. The electromyography performed three weeks later did not show any finding of denervation at the quadriceps muscle, suggesting a previous femoral neuropraxic block.
An 82-year old woman with the same symptoms and radiological findings of the previous patient underwent thrombolysis and thrombectomy with right femoral access in general anesthesia.
When transferred to the Stroke Unit, she presented just a mild drift of the right lower limb, but the day after she developed a complete plegia of the right lower limb associated with “mild pain and an unpleasant cold sensation”. The right lower limb was cold and distal pulses were absent. CTA of the lower extremities demonstrated a pseudoaneurysm of the common femoral artery, associated with distal arterial occlusion. The patient underwent emergency femoral endarterectomy without any complication.
You can read the full article here.
Apr 16, 2019
This article first appeared on the PREvention of Stroke in Intracerebral haemorrhaGE survivors with Atrial Fibrillation (PRESTIGE-AF) website
The PRESTIGE-AF team are going to Milan in May to participate in one of Europe’s leading forums for stroke research, the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC).
The European Stroke Organisation Conference is a premier European forum for stroke research and rapidly becoming the global platform for the release of major trial data. Last year the conference welcomed over 4,500 participants from around the world with 1800 abstracts submitted, and over 1300 e-posters on display. With one participant suggesting “it is the stroke conference in Europe I think at the moment (participant from ESOC 2019 promotional video), the 2019 conference will provide a unique opportunity for the PRESTIGE-AF team to network with fellow clinicians and scientists.
The PRESTIGE-AF team will present, discuss and trade expertise in the most rapidly evolving area of stroke management and care. We have quite a few from the PRESTIGE-AF team presenting at the conference including the project’s coordinators from Imperial College London, Roland Veltkamp, Stephanie Debette from Universite de Bordeaux, and Joan Montaner from Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). Roland will convene the session on Intracerebral Haemorrhage and do a short presentation looking at the causes of recurrent ischemic stroke after embolic stroke of an undetermined source. The team will take full advantage of the conference with holding their own Investigator Meeting and Steering Committee breakfast.
ESO president Bart van der Worp, notes that “ESOC 2019 will be even greater…with major trial results to be presented” (ESOC Youtube Video), so we are looking forward to the team’s review of the conference including presentations of major clinical trials.
Go to the website for more information about the 2019 European Stroke Organisation Conference.
Apr 12, 2019
As announced earlier, SAFE will open conversation with our member organisations’ leaders, in the attempt of shedding light on life after stroke issues across Europe.
This week we are talking with Dr Maja Bozinovska Smiceska, President of Association for a fight against stroke “Stroke” in North Macedonia.
SAFE: What is one issue related to the life after stroke in your country that you think needs special attention?
MBS: Every stroke is different, and so is the recovery that follows. Patients suffer not just physical problems like weakness and impaired gait, but also difficulties with language, memory, cognition and emotional problems. Patients everyday life changes and become full of obstacles and frustration.
One aspect regarding rehabilitation in their recovery is intensive work with multidisciplinary team. So, the first problem in our country is deficiency of such team in most of our cities or inequality in specialized stroke recovery. All stroke survivors have approach to physical therapy, part of them of them have language therapy at disposal, but just a small percentage have luck to be rehabilitated by a multidisciplinary team.
Second very important problem is that there is no national strategy, a specific path, that will simplify the struggle of patient and family. Considering not just rehabilitation but also their adaptation to situation and inclusion in society, helping them to be productive as possible or providing to others specific help according to their needs like financial help or accommodation.
SAFE: What would be the solution, i.e. what is your organisation’s position regarding this issue?
MBS: As the only organisation that deals with stroke patients in our country, we are continuously increasing public awareness and educating public using different media, where and how to find help and to whom to address their specific problems. Also our network is offering annually reviewed data. We organise lectures for specific groups considering certain post stroke problems. Our organisation in 2017 formed a special team consisting of Stroke neurologists, nurses stroke survivors and caregivers that created a document in which we included recommendations for life after stroke. Members of our team already had two meeting in Ministry of health of Northern Macedonia, and this document was given to the counselor of the minister. What we consider important is forming a team in Ministry of health that deals with the issues of stroke, generally they should create and implement national strategy.
Our next goal is to organise peer to peer meetings and that way to improve self-management in stroke survivors and caregivers.
SAFE: Please tell us more about your organisation.
MBS: Our organisation is formed 2014. Our idea was to improve stroke care in our country that was very poor and unequal in different regions. Main goals of our organisation are raising the consciousness of the public and education; join care for improving the health condition of the patients with a stroke; informing about the new scientific and practical achievements in the treatment of the patients with a stroke; providing professional help in the field of action; encouraging and strengthening the cooperation with domestic and foreign organisations and institutions which have same or similar goals. We started with activities for stroke prevention and post stroke consultations for patients and caregivers that included not just spreading information trough media but also field work of teams consisting different specialists, doctors, nurses, clinical psychologists and physiotherapists in different cities. These activities are still going on, and we have upgraded our work. Our organisation is now member of SAFE and WSO.
Apr 12, 2019
Author: Aidan Judd
In 2016 and 2017, broadcaster Mark Goodier suffered two strokes. He found when he got home from hospital, there were not that many resources to use as part of your recovery. And once you are away from constant medical supervision, it can be a lonely time as family and friends get back to their daily lives.
Mark started the Stroke Stories podcast to seek out and hear from stroke survivors.
In every episode, we hear a different stroke survivor – we hear about their condition, what inspires them, and the lessons they learned on the road to recovery.
Every stroke is different, and we reflect that in the people that we talk to for the podcast. Since November 2018, when the first episode was released, we’ve spoken to people from all different ages, backgrounds, and nationalities:
Nick and Jo Cann
Nick had a stroke when he was 50. After the stroke he found that there was a lack of support in his area for him and other stroke survivors. Despite suffering from aphasia, Nick speaks at events across the UK to raise awareness of stroke, and has also set up a support cafe meet up.
Connor and Sarah Lynnes
As a result of an injury he had whilst playing rugby, Connor had a massive stroke at just 14 years old. Connor has now set up his own foundation, to help other young survivors of stroke and brain injuries.
Clodagh Dunlop
A front-line police officer, Clodagh Dunlop was only 35 when she suffered her stroke. As a result, she experienced locked-in syndrome, which meant she was unable to move or speak. However, after 7 months of intense physiotherapy, she walked out of hospital, and is back working full time in the police force.
Antonio Iannella
Antonio suffered a stroke at the age of 38 whilst in holiday with his family in Vietnam. Since then, he has recovered well, and pursued a lifelong dream of opening and running a music recording studio in his home.
We want to spread the message as far as possible. If you are a stroke survivor and would like to feature in a future episode, then please contact SAFE, or DM us via our Twitter account – twitter.com/strokestories
Updated with new episode released every week, Stroke Stories seeks to inspire and reassure with real life stories from stroke survivors and their families.
There are currently over 20 episodes available through iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/stroke-stories/id1442493312?mt=2) and on ACast (https://play.acast.com/s/strokestories)
For the latest updates, follow Stroke Stories on Twitter – www.twitter.com/strokestories and Instagram www.instagram.com/strokestories
