15 Open Clinical Trials for those with CRPS/RSD

FIFTEEN OPEN CLINICAL TRIALS for those with CRPS/RSD:

1
Not yet recruiting
Safety and Efficacy Study of Ethosuximide for the Treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) Type I
Condition:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Type I
Interventions:
Drug: Placebo; Drug: Ethosuximide

2
Not yet recruiting
Graded Exposure (GEXP) in Vivo Versus Physiotherapy in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type I (CRPS-I)
Condition:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type I
Interventions:
Behavioral: Graded exposure in vivo; Behavioral: Physiotherapy

3
Recruiting
A Study of the Effect of Lenalidamide on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1
Condition:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Type 1
Intervention:
Drug: Lenalidamide

4
Recruiting
Association Between Focal Dystonia and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Conditions:
Focal Dystonia; Peripheral Nervous System Disease
Intervention:

5
Recruiting
Effect of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol on the Prevention of Chronic Pain in Patients With Acute CRPS (ETIC-Study)
Conditions:
Complex Regional Pain Syndromes; CRPS
Intervention:
Drug: Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol

6
Recruiting
Evaluation of Autonomic Cardiac Function in Patients With CRPS
Condition:
CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndromes)
Intervention:

7
Recruiting
Capsaicin-Evoked Pain in Patients With CRPS
Condition:
CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndromes)
Intervention:

8
Recruiting
The Efficacy of Motor Cortex Stimulation for Pain Control
Conditions:
Neuropathic Pain; Phantom Limb Pain; Stump Pain; Brachial Plexus Avulsion; Deafferentation Pain; Facial Pain; Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Intervention:
Device: motor cortex stimulation

9
Recruiting
Evaluation and Diagnosis of People With Pain and Fatigue Syndromes
Conditions:
Fatigue; Fibromyalgia; Pain; Complex Regional Pain Syndrome; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
Intervention:

10
Recruiting
Evoked Fields After Median and Ulnar Stimulation
Condition:
Complex Regional Pain Syndromes
Intervention:
Procedure: Evoked fields before and after a local block (Xylocaine)

11
Not yet recruiting
Regional Anesthesia in Combat Trauma Improves Pain Disability Outcomes
Conditions:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type II; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Depressive Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Substance Abuse
Intervention:
Drug: Opioid Analgesics

12
Recruiting
Double Blind Placebo Controlled Study of Outpatient Intravenous Ketamine for the Treatment of CRPS
Condition:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Interventions:
Drug: Ketamine; Other: IV NSS; Other: Normal Saline

13
Recruiting
Neurotropin to Treat Chronic Neuropathic Pain
Conditions:
Causalgia; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
Intervention:
Drug: Neurotropin

14
Recruiting
Susceptibility to Chronic Post-Traumatic Extremity Pain
Condition:
Chronic Pain
Intervention:

15
Recruiting
A Pilot Study of Switching From One Pain Medication to Another (Opioid Rotation)
Condition:
Pain
Intervention:
Drug: oxymorphone IV

As usual, thanks to Jim Broatch of RSDSA for the electronic alert. Trials were reported at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ -- under the search term complex+regional+pain+syndrome.

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović: For the love of God, get new shorts!

After I was finally shot up with gallium this afternoon, Fred and I locked ourselves in the bedroom to watch a Pride DVD --Shockwave 2005. Fred fell asleep pretty quickly but I was up and down, hurting very, very badly and incredibly hungry (high dose steroids again!). I don't know why the pain is up and I pray it eases sometime soon.

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović and Samoan Mark Hunt had an interesting match. Cro Cop issued some authoritative head kicks -- that he is so quick as a heavyweight is remarkable; he doesn't telegraph his kicks, either --but Hunt merely shrugged off these blows that would knock most fighters unconscious. Hunt won by split decision, which was the right call, as he was more aggressive and inflicted more damage. (Another split decision was definitely *wrong* -- allowing Wanderlei Silva to keep his belt over Ricardo Arona.)

Anyway, what inspired me to write this short, stupid post? Mirko Cro Cop's fighting shorts. If it is a matter of money, let me be the first to contribute. If it is a matter of superstition, a few sessions of hypnotherapy will clear that right up. While it is true that he works for the secret police, it is unnerving that his shorts seem to bear testimony somehow! They are old, they are tight, they are weird. And since this is a man determined to toss his legs up in the air, please, dear God, let's get him some decent shorts. There are some things best left to the imagination, and Cro Cop's package is one of them.

This has apparently been an editorial about Mirko Filipović and his fighting togs.

I have a personal calling to elevate the level of discourse in the blogosphere, one earth-shattering post at a time.

Here are the 12 fights we watched -- I won't reveal the results:

1.1 Charles Bennett vs Ken Kaneko
1.2 Yuki Kondo vs Kazuhiro Nakamura
1.3 Paulo Cesar Silva vs James Thompson
1.4 Sanae Kikuta vs Makoto Takimoto
1.5 Aleksander Emelianenko vs Pawel Nastula
1.6 Fedor Emelianenko vs Zuluzinho
1.7 Welterweight Tournament Final: Murilo Bustamante vs Dan Henderson
1.8 Lightweight Tournament Final: Takanori Gomi vs Hayato Sakurai
1.9 Ikuhisa Minowa vs Kazushi Sakuraba
1.10 Mirko Filipović vs Mark Hunt
1.11 PRIDE Middleweight Championship: Ricardo Arona vs Wanderlei Silva
1.12 Naoya Ogawa vs Hidehiko Yoshida

The Working Girl

Monday, the Fredster was guiding my wheelchair as it was being lifted into the car, when a very lanky-skanky prostitute came sashaying by (we're located between two major thoroughfares), and called out to him, asking if he wanted a good time (I'm chopped liver or she didn't see me. Or both.). When Fred cheerfully answered that no, he was fine, thanks -- without missing a beat, she wanted to know if he needed help with yardwork, then! I about fell out of the car at the look on his face!

sashay (v.)
1836, from mangled Anglicization of Fr. chassé "gliding step" (in square dancing), lit. "chased," pp. of chasser "to chase," from O.Fr. chacier "to hunt," from V.L. *captiare (see capable, and cf. chase, catch). The noun is attested from 1900.
--Online Etymology Dictionary

Mal à la gorge

Quel matin catastrophique! Ecoutez, écoutez, tout le monde, je dois vous faire une annonce de tristesse profonde: J'ai mal à la gorge. Oui! Moi, diva exceptionelle, mal à la gorge! Fred --un coup de fil immédiatement au médecin! Et toi, Retired Educator, conduis-moi vite à la salle d'urgence. Chop-chop, allons-y!

[Oh God, not again. She has the least little scratchiness in her throat and it is off to the races... call the doctor, drive me to the Emergency Department (Room? Department? Cela ne me fait rien -- but WhiteCoat cares, apparently.). All so that she can sing that stupid L'air des bijoux -- over and over and over again. Still, she does have her public, and she is scheduled to perform a matinée today. I'm sure she won't have to wait... not after they get to know her and the deleterious effect she might have upon a room of sick people.]
Va-t-en, Dobby! Chaton bizarre. Fou, même. J'ai mal dormi à cause de lui, ce petit fou. Ma pauvre voix en démontre le résultat: mimimimimi, tousse-tousse, lalalalala! Comment serai-je capable de chanter le grand air de Boudon aujourd'hui, alors que ma gorge est si douloureuse, la vie si cruelle? Jésus a pleuré, tu sais. Et Jésus a pleuré. [She always pulls that old "and Jesus wept" crap. Jeez. And... right on cue, she commences to sob.]

Et toi, Retired Educator, comment se fait-il que tu sois si heureuse en face de mon désespoir? Hein?
[Comment? Piece of cake, la Belle Bianca Castafiore, piece of cake.]
(Sonnerie de téléphone)
Saved by the bell! It is Cranky Nurse at her doctor's office, returning our frantic SOS. She spreads melodious concern as if it were just so much manure. A *special* concoction of Magic Mouthwash has been called in to the Best Pharmacy In The Area -- felicitously close to the house. "Send one of the minions," purrs Cranky Nurse to La Belle Bianca Castafiore. "Mais bien sûr, bien sûr," elle murmure, en réponse. "Moi, il faut que je reste à la maison, silencieuse -- afin de remettre ma voix, tu sais, Cranky Nurse."
She whispered her way through the day, rinsing, gargling, slurping down beef consommé with alarming alacrity, slagging her way through dainty gobs of garlic bread -- the secret restorative of divas the world over, claims La Belle.
But she was ready to sing, come time for L'air des bijoux. And afterward she told us, laughingly:
"Ah, je ris de me voir si belle dans ce miroir!"

American Pain Foundation Alert and Advocacy Group Gripe

I wonder if I am alone in my issues with some advocacy groups and their mailings: the gung-ho, unbridled and breathless; the addled punctuation -- specifically, extreme exclamation point abuse. Mostly, I just want the information and tend to respect a fairly sparse missive that delivers that information and leaves the question of my exuberance alone. If I am on your mailing list, I probably support your cause. So leave my motivation... to me. I don't *do* decaf and I don't do "OhMyGod!"

That gripe made, please consider the following e-alert put out by the American Pain Foundation:

National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008

To: All individuals and organizations that care about improving pain care in America
URGENT CALL TO ACTION!

The National Pain Care Policy Act has been introduced in the Senate! With the Senate recess rapidly approaching, the time to act is NOW!

ACTION REQUESTED:

CONTACT YOUR SENATORS TO REQUEST THEY BECOME A CO-SPONSOR OF THE THE NATIONAL PAIN CARE POLICY ACT of 2008, S. 3387
The National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007, HR 2994 has been in the House of Representatives gaining more and more support since July 2007. This bill has now been introduced in the Senate thanks to the efforts of Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT). With this important bill now in both houses of Congress it is important that your Senators hear from you. With the upcoming election and recess, THE TIME IS NOW!

Click here to TAKE ACTION! Send a letter to your Senator urging their immediate support for this important legislation! Our Online Advocacy Center will send your message for you. It is quick and easy.

Inform them that you are concerned about the hidden pain epidemic in our country and as a resident of their state you are urgently requesting their support by signing on as a co-sponsor of S. 3387 before the summer recess. The letter has been written, just add a personal comment and our system will send it for you. CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION!

To view the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008, S. 3387, please click here. The bill will soon be available on the official site, http://thomas.loc.gov/.

Encourage others to TAKE ACTION! Let your voice be heard!

Forward this message to a friend!

There is strength in numbers! Thank you for being part of this united effort to eliminate the under-treatment of pain in America.

For important updates on the Military and Veteran Legislation, click here.
TAKE ACTION NOW!

Get involved! If you would like to be involved in further advocacy efforts, please complete the Advocacy Survey.

CONSIDER ADOPTING AN EXCLAMATION POINT!!! RETURN AFTER 9 WEEKS FOR FREE SPAY/NEUTER!!!

I don't "do" decaf

Retired Educator here, fresh from catching up on my favorite blogs on my Google Reader.

Kim over at Emergiblog opens an excellent, and sadly necessary, post on Emergency Department etiquette with a few remarks about coffee. Back in the day, she recalls that patients in Coronary Care were only allowed a certain hideous form of freeze-dried instant decaf.

"No coffee for you!" cried the Nurse Nazis.

This made me think of a week I spent in the hospital back in the late 80s. The medical center is well-known and ranks in the top 10 of the U.S. News Best Hospital List.

My doctor started a medication that required me to have a certain minimum blood pressure in order for the nurse to be able to administer it. My normal blood pressure makes medicos want a crash cart nearby, so this was proving something of a challenge.

First, my nurse had me get up to a chair.

Next, walk around the room.

Calisthenics.

Move into a slow jog, a trot, a canter.

Take a shower.

60/40.

No go.

"Coffee, I need coffee, real coffee. I don't do decaf and I don't do instant." I told them.

"You're not supposed to have coffee. It's contraindicated. " Still, she had a curious look on her face, and was checking her watch. The med was to be given before breakfast, and time was marching on, she had report to give, charting to do, a life to live.

She left.

She came back, slinking inside, a mug (a real mug!) of steaming coffee in hand. I did mental handstands and managed to refrain from inquiring after my shot of steamed milk. Like a simpering dutiful child, I blew and slurped, blew and slurped, all under her watchful eye.

Note to readers: it is impossible to properly enjoy the beverage under that kind of woeful surveillance.

Guess what? 80/45.

Almost, but not quite.

So here is the part that you will likely not believe -- I said something about wishing I could smoke a cigarette with my coffee. Just chitchat.

Her beady eyes narrowed so that she had very narrow, very beady eyes.

Yes, she had me go in the bathroom and smoke 1/2 of a cigarette.

And B-I-N-G-O! 90/60. She gave her med, told me to keep quiet, and to be ready to do it again the next morning.

I swear! And I was better prepared the next morning, too. I kept some cream containers in an emesis basin full of ice.

I wish I knew what the medication was but I don't recall. I was more intrigued by this nurse and our transgressions.