Braised Lambchop
a nurse trying to work while suffering with chronic pain - she rambles a bit

Excellent article in the Sunday Los Angeles Times about acupuncture and its real effects on real pain:

...a decade of acupuncture imaging research has shown that "people who get better with acupuncture have clear changes in their brain function," says Dr. John Farrar, a pain researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Changes are seen in the thalamus, a brain region that processes information from the senses, including touch and also pain.

But acupuncture also affects activity in the brain region called the cingulate gyrus as well as other brain structures that make up the limbic system, which processes the range of human emotions and memory.

The fact that acupuncture deactivates the brain's limbic system suggests it "diminishes the emotional part of the pain experience," such as anxiety or that woe-is-me feeling, says Terry Oleson, a board member of the Society for Acupuncture Research and a director at Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica, which trains acupuncturists and offers degrees in Oriental medicine.

Hormone release could be key to such brain changes. Thirty years ago, about the same time acupuncture started to pique the interest of Americans, Chinese medical researchers began studying it in animals. They showed — and subsequent Western researchers confirmed — that acupuncture increased the body's production of its own natural painkillers, known as endogenous opioids, or endorphins. People experienced no pain relief from acupuncture if they were first injected with a drug that blocked the opioids' activity.

Controlling the 'oh, no' part of my pain is the key for me. I've found if I settle down, calm myself, and stop worrying about the pain so much - and I have pain pretty much 24/7 - I can often take my perceived pain level from a 9 or 10 to a 1 or 2. That's huge for me. Remember, my pain feels like I've been punched and stabbed in the lower abdomen, and sometimes it's hard to walk upright because of it, so any relief I can give myself without medication is as thrilling as winning the lottery.

I can't yet do it on command or quickly - I have to lie down and apply pressure to my tummy while doing breathing exercises and imagining my scar parting like Moses parted the Red Sea. I can't do it sitting up yet either, so I still have to use medication during waking hours until I teach myself how to do it amid distractions like noise and activity. And it takes 10 to 15 minutes, although I'm getting better at it each time. Interestingly, if I take the as-needed medication instead of doing this relaxation for a couple of days, I can't do the relaxation as easily the next time I need to.

Anyway, my point is that this chronic pain experience is at least partially mind over matter. There are many days when it hurts very badly, but I know there's nothing really wrong and that I can stop or decrease my pain if I just don't worry about it. For now that means I have to go lie down more than I'd like, but I can see myself coming off most or all of my medication once I get the hang of it. I think that's going to be my V-P Day. I'll post more on learning to 'think' your way out of pain soon.