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 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 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
