Pain Train: Ambassador for the Pain Revolution 2018
(Soula Mantalvanos Jan 19, 2018 pudendalnerve.com.au)
(Cut to the chase, I want to support the Pain Revolution 2018!!!)
I’ve got a soft spot for Professor Lorimer Moseley.
In Feb 2011 I had just had the peripheral stimulation implant op and was slowly emerging from my darkest days.
Alone at home while Theo started a new full time job and staring at our shut down graphic design business I was still unable to do very much at all but I listened to the radio and that was where I first heard Lorimer speaking. He was on Margaret Throsby’s show on ABC Classic FM.
I heard Lorimer explain chronic pain and the brain before coming to the conclusion that he was mad and switching off the radio.
I was angry that this professional was saying that my brain was really good at learning bad things and that my brain did that in the same way – and as well as it could learn good things.
As we now know, Lorimer was right and I’m still angry… but angry at my brain!
(Lorimer and Soula at the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia Melbourne launch)
A little while later, I read The Brain that Changes Itself and it referenced Lorimer’s mirror theory work. After trekking the steep and confusing specialist trail collecting variations of the statement, ‘you’re a complex case’, I decided to write to Lorimer – I had no idea what else to do with myself.
I wrote a few paragraphs saying I would greatly appreciate any advice and also offered my brain to his research (I was seeking to be somehow useful!).
Lorimer replied and within a month of his reply I was diagnosed by a physician who closely follows his research (who was a physiotherapist and who worked in the general public system… go figure!).
Everything began to change for the better from this point. That was 4.5 years after my injury. I will be ever grateful.
I’m still no less angry with my brain’s intellectual ability to be super dumb – or rather super protective as I now know but since my diagnosis I became inspired to give back.
I wouldn’t be a very good advocate if I didn’t follow the leading researchers (I’d be in alot more pain as well!).
Having remained glued to Lorimer, I’ve also glued myself to the organisations and groups Lorimer is also glued to: Body in Mind, NoiGroup, UniSA, and the Pain Revolution.
My life experiences (creative and pain related) with the research I’ve read to date are the factors now contributing to my better quality of life, to the better self management of my chronic health issue and to my founding Pain Train.
If my online health summarising resource is going to be able to help people like you and I, it needs to step up and chug alongside these movers and shakers (and what an honor that they’re happy to have Pain Train chug along with them!).
So, we’re now signed up and Pain Train is officially an ambassador for this year’s Pain Revolution and committed to raising $1,000 in the name of pain research!
ANY amount you donate makes a difference to pain research… and that means it makes a huge difference to ME!
Think riding a bike from Sydney to Albury-Wodonga is tough?
It’s hard work, but probably not as hard as living with persisting pain.
We have a really big problem with persisting pain
- It is Australia’s most costly health problem
- It is the most common reason for early retirement
- It is most common in the bush
- 1 in 5 Aussies are suffering right now
- Research & resources are desperately needed
We need to completely RETHINK persisting pain. We need to RE-ENGAGE with this massive problem, and give people resources to RECOVER. We need a REVOLUTION!
What is the Pain Revolution?
The Pain Revolution is a 7 day cycle tour from 11-18th April 2018, led by some of Australian’s leading pain scientists and clinicians. They are taking on their own physical challenge, riding their bikes from Sydney to Albury-Wodonga.
More: painrevolution.org
Exactly who gets the donation and where do the funds go?
By making a donation to the University of South Australia in support of Pain Revolution, you are helping us to raise desperately needed funds to support the development of accessible, community-based pain education programs for people living with persisting pain.
