Lots of pain...No gain

If I went into the ER at any hospital with, say, a broken arm, doctors would know exactly what to do in order to treat my injury. It is the same for many other conditions, like diabetes and hypertension. But there is no scientific standard nor solid clinical criteria for measuring pain. It is completely subjective and treatment of chronic pain is based almost solely on the experience of the physician and feedback provided by the patient. In 2010, that is totally unacceptable.

In an age when we can transplant organs and grow human tissue in a lab, RSD patients are still going in to their pain management doctor like toddlers. “I have a boo-boo and it’s this big (cue arm gesture showing how big).” It’s like my wife should pick something from the treasure box after a med check. It is surprising and frustrating that researchers have not made more progress on pain issues in recent years. As far as I can tell, all doctors are able to do is put patients on a cocktail of drugs more suited to tranquilizing an elephant. Well, there is also the Ketamine option. That is if you don’t mind filling your body with a drug most commonly used on dogs and cats. Ketamine was developed in 1962 as an alternative to phencyclidine…hello, that’s PCP!! Subjects treated with Ketamine frequently experience symptoms of psychosis, including delusions and hallucinations – and not in the good, fun way.

So, those are your choices – a mind-altering chemical cocktail, or an infusion of a hallucination-inducing drug taken at raves. Sweet!

I guess I am just frustrated at the lack of treatment options for RSD patients. A ton of money has been raised for high profile diseases like breast cancer, which is great, but it feels like RSD has been forgotten. In fact, my experience has been that 95% of people I meet have never even heard of RSD. Some estimates put the number of patients suffering from RSD in the US at around a million. So, my question is how many more suffering people are needed before someone takes up the cause on a national scale? Where is the RSD celebrity spokesperson? Where are the telethons and the $1000 a plate fundraisers?

The NIH does have scientists working on chronic pain, including RSD, but I just wonder how much of a priority that is for them. Drug companies certainly aren’t paying much attention. RSD is not a sexy, media-friendly disease. Drug companies put more cash into erectile dysfunction than pain. Ain’t that somethin'? My wife is in constant, agonizing pain, but some middle-aged guy somewhere can get his groove on. Thank you, pharmaceutical industry, for pooling your resources into what will make the most profit for the company, rather than looking at a group of suffering people who have been completely forgotten.