“But I have in my spine.”
“Oh I can’t, my is really bad.”
“I guess I’ll just have to live with this .”
Fill in the blank with your own patient comments, but they are all essentially the same. Some gigantic, devastating, destruction is occurring inside of their body…and there’s no hope.
I don’t know if it’s funny or just sad, but the fact that such a large amount of patients respond to such “terminal” (i.e. chronic) conditions with statements like Continue reading
After a few weeks back in the out patient physical therapy setting I am re-confronted with the pathoanatomical-ness of diagnosis.
The battle for language and context of explanation rages on: full strength, full power, full speed. Whew, just trying to hang on. Daily I must combat the destructive thoughts of a fragile body, or a decaying joint, a shredded tendon, or a tear from here to there.
Sometimes it is very true. Others not. But trying to de-fixate an individual’s thoughts off of the negativity of their structures is unaided by visual proof that they are internally “disfigured.”
Oh Lord, I have heard the claims!
I have listened to the persuaders, the charmers, the charismatics. Most of their ideas make sense and can follow logical patterns. (see How To Fool a Smart Person by Erik Meira) I have a thirst for knowledge, and for universal truths… so I’m listening!
But I have one helpful tool that I use to quick-check these fantastic claims: The Punnett Square. The marriage of factors combined to make truth babies. Hypothetical genotypes producing theoretical phenotypes. (I don’t know what all that means…)
The punnet Square is commonly used in biology (I’ll let Khan Academy teach you about that here,) but we can use it in our own evidence based practice. Here’s how: Let’s take the claim that poor posture = pain and make a Punnet Square. Continue reading
Cancer.
It sucks. Fortunately, most of us will live our lives out without this battle. We’ll go on, mostly, ignorant to the difficulty, the fear, the anxiety, the depression, the emotional strain, the unanswered questions, the sleepless nights, or even the simplicity of the brutal financial cost.
And that’s what this post is about…the cost. Well, two things: the cost and the hope. When someone you know struggles with cancer, there may be a variety of things you can do to personally help bear the burden. When it’s someone you don’t know…there may be less options. BUT none of them are less important.
A friend of the PTBT is struggling fighting against Double Hit Lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of lymphoma. We are asking you to partner with him and his family in this fight by providing some financial support. Initial costs for lymphoma treatments can be as much as $60,000. By giving financial support, you also give the other important tool in fighting cancer, hope. Let Rob know how far and wide the ripples of his life have spread and supply him with the hope he needs to continue fighting.
There’s only one day left, so please support the ‘stache and spread the word. https://www.booster.com/teamrobfights
After all, hope may just be the best medicine out there.
-PTBT
Nociception is subject to all the truths and flaws of any other input system.
Patients never have this view, since their pain has been described to them in terms of body parts and structures. However, the tissue is as important in pain as the eyeball is in what we see.
This past week’s viral internet subject is a great example of all that (Black ‘n’ Blue dress). Vision is simply our brain’s decision based on the information available to it, including, but not limited to, the light waves of objects. The eye itself is simply an Continue reading
PTbraintrust 