We are just a week away from Election Day 2026. As always on Invisible Pain, I am encouraging you to make yourself visible, but this time through your vote. We covered a lot of material last month about advocacy and ways to make yourself heard during Pain Awareness Month, including support for the Advancing Research … More Invisible Pain Goes to the Polls
I awake in bed to a sudden gasp for air. My throat lunges forward to inhale the night for a breath, as if I am bursting through the surface from a deep-water dive, desperate for oxygen. “David, are you ok?” I have awakened my wife in the next room down the hallway. “Is it a … More The Comorbidity Series: Sleep Apnea – Part 1
Photo by Jenna Day on Unsplash This past summer during Spondyloarthritis Awareness Month, I started Invisible Pain with the goal of learning more about my own chronic conditions and bringing awareness to chronic pain issues that make patients feel invisible. As we come to the end of #PainAwarenessMonth, it’s important to reflect on the 60 million plus Americans for which the awareness of pain never ends. It continues daily with stiff and … More Visualizing the Invisible
Photo by Deividas Toleikis on Unsplash This week for #PainAwarenessMonth, the U.S. Pain Foundation released an article explaining some of the key gaps in research for the pain community, and how the Advancing Research for Chronic Pain Act (ARCPA) can help close some of those gaps. In 8 Ways Better Policy Could Improve Life With Chronic Pain, Cindy Steinberg explains how ARCPA can help improve access to data and research … More Painful Gaps in Research
Photo by Owen Michael Grech on Unsplash This week I took the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA) Chronic Pain Access and Care Experiences Survey. The ACPA is using the survey to collect data from chronic pain patients to better understand their realities of accessing care, patient-clinician relationships, pain-related stigma, treatment barriers, and the unintended consequences of healthcare policies affecting pain management. The survey is intended for educational and … More Access to Care: An ACPA Survey
Photo by Angelica March on Unsplash “Thank you for being a part of our network, sir. Would you like to join the auto renewal plan?” “Well, maybe, but—” “Ok, great, yes. We can do that for you. Let me sign you up.” “Um, ok, but what I really need—” “Can you confirm your name and address for me again, sir?” “David… 88888.” … More Biologics Part 2: The Specialty Pharmacy
Photo by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Unsplash “David, open your eyes.” The medic is calm but stern as he tries to speak over my guttural wails and a commotion of sirens, swinging doors, and patient groans. “Can you hear me, David?” I lie on a stretcher in the hallway, pressed up against the wall as doctors and nurses rush by, my contorted limbs thrashing underneath stretcher belts and grasping for air. “Nurse! Nurse! We need help, please? We were told a room was ready when we called ten minutes … More Autoimmunity and the ER
Rainbow Sidewalk Chalk by Alex Jackman on Unsplash The first Pride parade I attended was in Seattle in the early 2000’s. At the time, I was a Kansas college graduate that traveled across the country to explore creative writing in the grey Cascade mountains of Washington, and to discover an identity buried within me for … More Invisible Pain: Pride Edition
