“Boot Camp” for Chronic Pain

There’s an intensive “boot camp” for sufferers of chronic pain.

But an intensive, four-week “boot camp” got the 55-year-old dancer from Toledo, Ohio, back to the barre. The program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago taught her to manage the chronic pain that had tormented her for more than a year.

[...]The Chicago program, affiliated with Northwestern’s medical school, attacks pain on three fronts — biological, psychological and social. It doesn’t claim to cure chronic pain, but instead gives patients tools to lessen its hold on their lives.

Patients spend Monday through Friday stretching, exercising and moving in new ways. They meet with a physician, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, a biofeedback therapist, a clinical psychologist and a movement specialist.

They may address depression or sleep problems or adjust their medications. And they learn from the other patients in the program.

Getting all of these things under one roof differs from most approaches to treating chronic pain, said Dr. Steven Stanos, the program’s medical director.

The article continues on how chronic pain becomes chronic and how it effects interpersonal relationships. I don’t have to go on about that to those of you who suffer through it. When the cause of the pain is invisible, as in the case of most pain, there’s a lot of doubt about what extent we actually feel the pain. People tell us to get over it, to quit whining, that it’s “convenient” our flares come when they do- and that’s (a lot of times) from people around us. When we do find someone who backs us all the way, we’re overjoyed and most likely experience a better quality of life (who wouldn’t?). This hasn’t happened for me yet, but I’ve read first-hand accounts of this elusive phenomenon.

In 2005, Americans with aching backs and necks spent $20 billion on prescription drugs and another $31 billion for outpatient doctor visits, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Total spending on spine treatments increased 65 percent from 1997, adjusted for inflation. But rising alongside that was the proportion of people with spine problems who reported limited function.

Such spending with such poor results gets insurance companies’ attention.

Chronic pain patients’ medical and pharmacy bills “show up on our radar,” said Dr. James Cross, Aetna’s national medical policy chief. The patients are “frustrated and clearly suffering” and “looking for an answer,” he said.

It can be financially draining to try to find a cause of the pain and ultimately to learn to control it. Many people rely strictly on drugs to manage pain and can find themselves jumping from one type to the other, at varying doses, looking for relief. This boot camp teaches patients how to manage the pain without jumping through the dosage hoops. And in the end, save thousands of dollars in pharmacy bills.

I personally believe in alternative therapies, in conjunction with traditional medicine. I’ve completely eliminated my need for the Ultram from my regimen and only take the Vicodin a couple of times a week now¹ and my energy levels are better. I’ve looked for other ways to manage my illness because my doctor’s didn’t seem to want to take the effort to help me. I don’t regret that.

This boot camp would be perfect for someone like me, though I would prefer it be on one of those carnival cruises to the Caribbean, because it’s different and empowering. The price seems pretty high at this point, at $20K a pop, but there are techniques that they use in that camp which can be utilized from home. When you find that regimen (the one with less pills and less doctor’s visits) you can consider yourself a graduate of your own “boot camp”.

1. Previously I was taking 2 of those a day, plus 2 or 3 Ultram [↩]