- VTDigger
Adapted from remarks at the Integrative Pain Management Conference presented by Osher Center for Integrative Health at UVM.
The Comprehensive Pain Program at University of Vermont Medical Center offers an innovative 16-week program for those grappling with debilitating chronic pain. I am currently a participant. It is quite a wondrous paradigm of care and well-being.
Twenty-seven years ago, I had spinal cord surgery to remove a tumor at C2 that left me with Brown Séquard syndrome. My right side has no sense of touch or temperature. My left lost proprioception. I have no kinesthetic connection to the ground.
After six weeks in the hospital, I was sent home in a wheelchair. Over the years, physical therapy, swimming, water running and yoga incrementally expanded motor skills, coordination, balance and strength. Initially quadriplegic, I incrementally regained function and within months used a cane or walker with the chair as backup.
One unpleasant aftereffect: Neuropathy is unrelenting on my right side. My foot feels swollen and on fire. Electric shocks punctuate every step. Excruciating throbbing pulses through my hip.
Trying to lessen the distress, I ricocheted to body workers, chiropractors, acupuncturists and herbalists. Everything was scattershot, with little or no medical advice. Insurance sometimes covered limited treatments, most times not.
Pharmaceuticals tempered spasticity and misery but distanced me from family and friends. Falls, accidents and setbacks were emotionally fraught. Chasing relief seemed futile.
Ambulation became even more complicated two years ago when I slipped in a restaurant and fractured my right fibula, adding intense burning on top of persistent neuropathic torment. On a scale of 1 to 10: 15.
Blessedly, I am in one of three cohorts involved in the Comprehensive Pain Program. Thanks to BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont for making it possible for me to engage in these immersive offerings.
Group meetings as well as individualized hands-on sessions provide practical tools. Nutritional, medical, physical and occupational therapy, and health coaching consults are tailor-made for each of us, dealing with different afflictions. Yoga and meditation, even cooking, augment the curriculum. Partners have a support group as they, too, are impacted.
No one turns on a stopwatch as they come into the room, and therapists listen intently. All come informed as to what is happening with the other modalities in this marvelous team-based approach. As the weeks proceed, I feel I am being carried by the entire crew.
Each participant articulates values and is helped to define action steps to realize them. Resiliency strategies are discussed for all aspects of our biopsychosocial selves instead of focusing solely on recovery from injury.
Most powerful are the acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and Reiki sessions. For 27 years, I obsessed on the neuropathy in my right hip and foot, amplified with the fractured fibula two years ago. In this program, I now realize I ignored the left side of my body.
How thrilling it has been to work with these gifted practitioners to recircuit my forgotten and dormant limbs. As energy vibrates through, I am heartened.
While initial intentions were focused on lessening the agony, we now target a more balanced holistic body. This is profound and transformational, providing enormous physical, psychological and emotional healing. How truly revelatory to factor in lived experience with my thinking, physical and spiritual selves.
I am extremely grateful for this visionary design of integrative health care and to insurance companies understanding lives can be improved and ultimately dollars saved longer-term. Medicaid begins coverage for its subscribers later this summer, increasing further access to this extraordinary opportunity to enhance one’s quality of life.