A compulsively readable explorer’s journal of the hidden territory of pain, as profound and insightful as the work of Oliver Sacks and Sherwin Nuland.

A bee sting on the lips was the tiny lance that set Marni Jackson off on a four-year exploration of the many ways in which we suffer. Exiled for an afternoon in the country called pain, she realized that no one had the words to describe her condition although it was as familiar as a headache. A fusion of emotion, nerve and memory, pain inspired only questions.

“Why do we still distinguish between mental pain and physical pain,” she asks, “when pain is always an emotional experience? Why is pain so poorly understood, especially in a century of self-scrutiny? Hasn’t anyone noticed the embarrassing fact that science is about to clone a human being but still can’t cure the pain of a bad back?” North Americans spend $24 billion a year on pain relief while chronic pain is on the rise. If pain is the reason why most people visit the doctor, why are most doctors so bad at addressing the problem of suffering?

Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign dives back into the history of pain and forward into the possibilities of pain genetics, bringing us stories of both people in pain and the pain pioneers: eccentrics and artists, wrestlers and writers, ministers and mothers, psychologists and philosophers, nurses and doctors. Marni Jackson has created a definitive, heartfelt, funny and beguiling portrait of a condition we can’t live with — and can’t live without.


http://www.amazon.ca/Pain-The-Fifth-Vital-Sign/dp/0679311084

Inside Chronic Pain: An Intimate and Critical Account by Lous Heshusius.

"With Lous Heshusius as a guide, pain patients can learn much about the perils of a modern health-care odyssey. Health professionals can learn how an articulate middle-class female white patient thinks (with all that thinking entails) when her world is irreversibly altered by pain. She does not promise happy endings. Chronic pain is like that. From the rare intersection in this text between patient narrative and physician response, however, readers may construct a dialogue on pain in our time that cannot fail to bring plentiful opportunities for personal insight and professional enlightenment."-from the Foreword by David B. Morris

Chronic pain, which affects 70 million people in the United States alone-more than diabetes, cancer, and heart disease combined-is a major public health issue that remains poorly understood both within the health care system and by those closest to the people it afflicts. This book examines the experience of pain in ways that could significantly improve how patients and practitioners deal with pain. It is the first volume of a new collection of titles within the acclaimed Culture and Politics of Health Care Work series called How Patients Think, intended to give voice to the concerns of patients about their own medical care and the formulation of health policy.

Since surviving a near-fatal car accident, Lous Heshusius has suffered from chronic pain for more than a decade, forcing her to give up her career as a professor of education. Inside Chronic Pain, based in part on the pain journal Heshusius keeps, is a stunning memoir of a life lived in constant pain as well as an insightful and often critical account of the inadequacies of the health care system-from physicians to hospitals and health insurance companies-to understand chronic pain and treat those who suffer from it. Through her own frequently frustrating experiences, she shows how health care providers often ignore, deny, or incorrectly treat chronic pain at immense cost to both the patient and the health care system. She also offers cogent suggestions on improving the quality and outcome of chronic pain care and management, using her encounters with exceptional medical professionals as models.

Inside Chronic Pain deals with pain's dramatic and destructive effects on one's sense of self and identity. It chronicles the chaos that takes place, the paralyzing effect of severe pain, the changes in personality that ensue, and the corrosive effects of severe pain on the ability to attend to day-to-day tasks. It describes how one's social life falls apart and isolation takes over. It also relates moments of happiness and beauty and describes how rooting the self in the present is crucial in managing pain.

A unique feature of Inside Chronic Pain is the clinical commentary by Dr. Scott M. Fishman, president of the American Pain Foundation. Fishman has long tried to improve the lives of patients like Heshusius. His medical perspective on her very human narrative will help physicians and other clinicians better understand and treat patients with chronic pain.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Inside+Chronic+Pain%3A+An+Intimate+and+Critical+Account+by+Lous+Heshusius.

The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering

Melanie Thernstrom

Each of us will know physical pain in our lives, but none of us knows when it will come or how long it will stay. Today as much as 10 percent of the population of the United States suffers from chronic pain. It is more widespread, misdiagnosed, and undertreated than any major disease. While recent research has shown that pain produces pathological changes to the brain and spinal cord, many doctors and patients still labor under misguided cultural notions and outdated scientific dogmas that prevent proper treatment, to devastating effect.

In The Pain Chronicles, a singular and deeply humane work, Melanie Thernstrom traces conceptions of pain throughout the ages—from ancient Babylonian pain-banishing spells to modern brain imaging—to reveal the elusive, mysterious nature of pain itself. Interweaving first-person reflections on her own battle with chronic pain, incisive reportage from leading-edge pain clinics and medical research, and insights from a wide range of disciplines—science, history, religion, philosophy, anthropology, literature, and art—Thernstrom shows that when dealing with pain we are neither as advanced as we imagine nor as helpless as we may fear.

Both a personal meditation and an intellectual exploration, The Pain Chronicles illuminates and makes sense of the all-too-human experience of pain—and confronts with extraordinary grace and empathy its peculiar traits, its harrowing effects, and its various antidotes.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pain-Chronicles-Mysteries-Suffering/dp/B005K5I2QO

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science [Paperback]

An astonishing new science called "neuroplasticity" is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. In this revolutionary look at the brain, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., provides an introduction to both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed. From stroke patients learning to speak again to the remarkable case of a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, The Brain That Changes Itself will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.


http://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Changes-Itself-Frontiers/dp/0143113100

Painful Yarns, written by Dr. Lorimer Moseley, is a compilation of hilarious stories and images intended to help explain the complexity of pain. These stories, while entertaining, are used as metaphors to explain key aspects of the biology of pain. 'Painful Yarns' is a perfect pre-read for 'Explain Pain'.


http://www.amazon.com/Painful-Yarns-Lorimer-Moseley/dp/0979988004

Explain Pain by David Butler and Dr. Lorimer Moseley is an evidence based book designed for therapists, patients and students. It answers the most common questions asked by pain sufferers: 'why do I hurt?' and 'what can I do for my pain?' Written in simple language that anyone can understand, it encourages patients to move better and research shows that they will have less pain once they have understood its underlying causes.

http://www.amazon.com/Explain-Pain-David-Butler/dp/097509100X

You Don't LOOK Sick!: Living Well With Invisible Chronic Illness [Kindle Edition] Joy Selak (Author), Steven Overman (Author)


E-Book only

“Coming to terms with this reality was a lot like accepting the death of a loved one.”

You Don’t LOOK Sick!: Living Well with Invisible Chronic Illness chronicles a patient’s true-life accounts and her physician’s compassionate commentary as they take a journey through the three stages of chronic illness—Getting Sick, Being Sick, and Living Well. This resource helps you focus on building a meaningful life that contains illness as opposed to a life of frustration and fear. Designed for patients in at all stages of the chronic illness journey, this book will also be illuminating for caregivers and loved ones.

Letting Everything Become Your Teacher: 100 Lessons in Mindfulness [Paperback]

Yes, there actually is a way to let everything become your teacher, to let life itself, and everything that unfolds within it, the “full catastrophe” of the human condition in the words of Zorba the Greek, shape your ongoing development and maturation. Millions have followed this path to greater sanity, balance, and well-being, often in the face of huge stress, pain, uncertainty, sorrow, and illness. 

In his landmark book, Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn shared this innovative approach, known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), with the world. Now, in this companion volume, 100 pointers from that groundbreaking work have been carefully selected to inspire you to embrace what is deepest and best and most beautiful in yourself.

Whether you are trying to learn patience, cope with pain, deal with the enormous stress and challenges of the age we live in, improve your relationships, or free yourself from destructive emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, these deceptively simple meditations will remind you that you have deep inner resources to draw upon, the most important of which is the present moment itself. Regardless of your age or whether you are familiar with the healing power of mindfulness, this insightful, inspirational guide will help you to honor, embrace, learn from, and grow into each moment of your life.

http://www.amazon.ca/Letting-Everything-Become-Your-Teacher/dp/038534323X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347646023&sr=1-1

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by J. Mark G. Williams, John D. Teasdale, Zindel V. Segal PhD and Jon Kabat-Zinn (Paperback - Jun 2 2007)

If you've ever struggled with depression, take heart. Mindfulness, a simple yet powerful way of paying attention to your most difficult emotions and life experiences, can help you break the cycle of chronic unhappiness once and for all. In The Mindful Way through Depression, four uniquely qualified experts explain why our usual attempts to "think" our way out of a bad mood or just "snap out of it" lead us deeper into the downward spiral. Through insightful lessons drawn from both Eastern meditative traditions and cognitive therapy, they demonstrate how to sidestep the mental habits that lead to despair, including rumination and self-blame, so you can face life's challenges with greater resilience. Jon Kabat-Zinn gently and encouragingly narrates the accompanying CD of guided meditations, making this a complete package for anyone seeking to regain a sense of hope and well-being.

Drs. Segal, Williams, and Teasdale have also written a bestselling book for professionals, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Second Edition.


http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=1593851286&rh=n%3A916520%2Ck%3A1593851286