Sacroiliac Supports

Posted on September 13, 2009 by admin

Sacroiliac instability is common and contributes to back pain and maybe even headaches. Where can you get good SI supports? Continue reading →

Posted in Manual Med | Leave a comment

Omega 3 – Anti-inflammatory Effects

Posted on September 13, 2009 by admin

Having a load of steroid response “Fibromyaglias” (as diagnosed by rheumatologists), I have been accumulating a list of anti-inflammatory agents. Omega 3 appears to have some promise. Continue reading →

Posted in Drugs | Leave a comment

Canadian Celebrity Takes World by Storm – Humor Me

Posted on August 16, 2009 by admin

First Seen in Banff, The character has been making appearances worldwide… Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

It’s Official – Swearing Helps Pain – but don’t overdo it

Posted on August 15, 2009 by admin

Pain Clinics are becoming very big into psychological coping – well, they better teach patients to swear more – as swearing has now shown to alleviate pain.

Continue reading →

Posted in psychology, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Medial Knee OsteoArthritis (OA)- What Else Can You Do? – Unload it and more

Posted on August 8, 2009 by admin

Waiting for a knee replacement and the quality of life is poor? Most often the inner knee cartilage wears out first. Measures to take the load off the inner knee are helpful. Continue reading →

Posted in Knee, Mechanical aids | 1 Comment

Ultrasound and TENS for Back Pain

Posted on August 5, 2009 by admin

I have found home ultrasound helpful in chronic back pain but there has been little research in its effectivenesss. Now there is a study in low back pain combining it with exercise that found it useful. TENS worked well to but I find if there is any instability, TENS might aggravate the problem so ultrasound is safer. Continue reading →

Posted in Back Pain | 1 Comment

Muscle-Joint Pains, Dry Mouth and Eyes? – Maybe You Have DEMS/SAPS with Thyroid Antibiodies

Posted on July 17, 2009 by admin

DEMS – dry eyes and mouth syndrome; SAPS – sicca asthenia polyalgia syndrome

These cases do not qualify for sjogren’s syndrome but have “Sicca [dryness] symptoms and “nonspecific musculoskeletal pain”. They were found to have 59.2% thyroid peroxidase antibody rate compared to 20.4% controls P= .0009. Continue reading →

Posted in myofascial pain, Rheumatic | Leave a comment

Vulvodynia Therapy Patient Resource

Posted on July 17, 2009 by admin

As a male doctor, I have trouble imparting all the info needed for someone with vulvodynia. Fortunately, Corrie Anne Goldfinger did her Master’s thesis at Queen’s University on the subject. It is available

free here (~2+ MB)

Since it is openly posted, I extracted the self help sections (16 pages) and have posted it as a doc file. This could be printed for patients or at least the link given….

There is a brochure included which was the hard work of Evelyne Gentilcore-Saulnier which I neglected to credit – good work there….
word file free here

let me know if this was useful!

Posted in Interstial Cystitis/Gynecologic | 2 Comments

New Hope For Complex Regional Pain Syndrome I – 5 days Magnesium Infusions

Posted on July 17, 2009 by admin
  • Type I CRPS is a vague syndrome of inordinate pain with variable – vague neurologic weakness or numbness features (unlike type II in which the nerve has definely been cut). Typical scenario is after a wrist fracture in patients with low vitamin C levels. Limb can become very painful, tender to touch, cold, and weak – more or less useless. Pains can become overwhelming.

I have mentioned previously how IV pamidronate could be useful here and IV Magnesium here
Now it looks like repeated 4 hour magnesium 70 mg/kg infusions repeated over 5 days can have some lasting effects. Continue reading →

Posted in complex regional pain, Drugs, Injection | 3 Comments

New Hope For Refractory Neck Pain – Botulinum “Botox” – But Not Cheap

Posted on July 17, 2009 by admin

Botox reduced pain in chronic neck pains (average 9.1+ years) for at least 2 month versus placebo -randomized and blind !! 150 – 300 unit was used per sesssion. Continue reading →

Posted in Botox, Neck | 1 Comment

Hyaluronan for Base Thumb Osteoarthritis (OA)

Posted on July 16, 2009 by admin

Injectable “lubricant” hyaluronan gives some relief of Carpal-metacarpal OA Thumb. One ml was injected weekly over 3 weeks. Continue reading →

Posted in hand | Leave a comment

Polymyaglia Rheumatica(PMR) – A New Look – Not as Easy as Seems

Posted on July 16, 2009 by admin

Due to lack of rheumatists in Regina, I have been forced to deal with complex pain cases that in part have an inflammatory nature. Some fit a PMR profile that requires more difficult management than I am used to. Below is a summary of articles (one German) which creates a new picture of the disease for me: Continue reading →

Posted in Rheumatic | 2 Comments

You Need to Do Local Work to Get a Feel for Pain – Tragic Hip Example

Posted on July 9, 2009 by admin

Much of the work I do is treating the “peripheral sensitization” – the tissues that become locally sensitive and knotted. Working these areas allows me to get a feel for how much is coming from the spine or other sources, and how much is being generated locally. On average, about 50% is local and 50% is “referred” – plus or minus some. Following is a tragic case of hip pain treated vigorously without looking for local causes. Continue reading →

Posted in Hip Pains | 1 Comment

Knee Pain After Hernia Surgery – Any Ideas?

Posted on June 29, 2009 by admin

I received the following message:

“Very interesting read, i’m on 4 days after left side inguinal hernia repair with incision and mesh. No full anesthesia. 2 mornings after surgery, after waking up the 2nd time, the back of left knee was in pain, could not straighten or bend over 90 deg. Called in to doc in morning and went back to hospital for a venus doplar check for a blood clot. It was negative. Now 4 days later and this afternoon, pain persists, but additional pain above the left knee cap, extremely painful, tender to the touch, and a bit inflamed. Doc never mentioned any to these type pains, just take some extra aspirin. So next move?……dunno” Continue reading →

Posted in Knee | 2 Comments

Attenuation of Pain After Spinal Injury May be Possible

Posted on June 18, 2009 by admin

Microglia spinal support nerves become activated after nerve and spinal injury an greatly potential the pain. Animal experiments show minocycline, a tetracycline antibiotic known to inhibit microglia, can reduce post spinal pain in animal subjects. Continue reading →

Posted in Drugs, pain mechanisms | 1 Comment

Self Help Book Resources in Chronic Pain

Posted on April 18, 2009 by admin

Let me first apologize to those with good books I have not mentioned. Please let me know and I will add them to the list: Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Knee Osteoarthrtis(OA) – Arthritis Pills Don’t Work That Well -What Else?

Posted on April 11, 2009 by admin

A New England Journal Medicine article several years ago demonstrated that compared to placebo not much by pills worked well for OA knee. This leaves one looking for options. Continue reading →

Posted in Knee | 1 Comment

Part of Failed Back is Overactivity of Sympathetic Nervous System

Posted on April 10, 2009 by admin

Failed back sydrome – post-laminectomy syndrome has multiple origins. Now it appears some sympathetic overload is present as well. Continue reading →

Posted in Back Pain | 2 Comments

Biphosphonates (bone building meds) and Jaw Necrosis – Not Seen in Oral Doses

Posted on April 5, 2009 by admin

Lon-term bone building meds intravenously (like Pamidronate) are associated with occasional oseonecrosis of jaw. Now there appears to be some hysteria that this can occur with oral medication. What are the facts? Continue reading →

Posted in Drugs | 1 Comment

Unresolved Shoulder Pain – Look at the neck

Posted on April 5, 2009 by admin

Came across a good power point presentation of a case of shoulder pain not helped by surgery and how the neck should have been considered:

Available here

Continue reading →

Posted in Neck, shoulder | 3 Comments

Fibromylagia, Bad Neck (and perhaps arm pains)but Normal MRI? – Need a Functional MRI

Posted on April 5, 2009 by admin

In the neck, imaging can be next to useless in many cases of unresolved neck pain. Incredibily, some people are told nothing showed on imaging so it has to be in their head. Now functional (multipositional) upright MRI is demonstrating some abnormalities. Continue reading →

Posted in Insurer issues, Neck | Leave a comment

Resistant Shoulder Tendonitis Treatments

Posted on April 4, 2009 by admin

Having come across a case of resistant rotator cuff (supraspinatus) impingment syndrome, I have been looking for answers. Some treatments include: Continue reading →

Posted in shoulder | 6 Comments

Upper body “Fibromyaglia” Misdiagnosis

Posted on April 3, 2009 by admin

Cervical (neck) disc disease can mimic or cause Fibromyalgic symptoms. Certain porportion of post whiplash “Fibromylagia” will fit here. Continue reading →

Posted in Fibromyalgia, radiculitis | 3 Comments

BASDAI resource

Posted on April 3, 2009 by admin

In Ankylosing Spondylitis, the The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and Spinal Pain Visual Analog Scale (VAS) are used to obtain coverage for Etanercept.

These forms are available here unprotected. Continue reading →

Posted in Rheumatic | Leave a comment

Ischial Tuberosity Off – Loading When sitting for pain relief

Posted on February 19, 2009 by admin

Seat adjustments that take the pressure off the ischial tuberosities help relieve back pain sitting

Continue reading →

Posted in Mechanical aids | 3 Comments