Friday, November 30, 2007

November Pain-Blog Carnival: Thankfulness | How To Cope With Pain Blog

How to Cope with Pain is now offering a monthly Pain-Blog Carnival during the last week of every month, to include each month's best posts.  November's carnival is now posted.  New bloggers are always welcome to contribute.

In honor of the American tradition of Thanksgiving which was celebrated last week, this month's Pain-Blog Carnival theme is thankfulness.  I'm thankful for the great articles which were submitted and are here for you today.  Enjoy!

Fighting Fatigue writes about the spirit of the holiday.  "One thing that's helped me deal with being chronically ill is being able to look at the bright side of the situation and find things that I'm still thankful for, even when life looks not-so-great sometimes."  And she challenges us to keep our own gratitude journal.

CRPS/RSD A Better Life shares an inspiring video of Alissa, a young girl with CRPS.  She's had a remarkable recovery, and supportive family, friends, and dedicated therapists who guided her along the way.

Migraine Chick writes Thank Heaven for Little Things about facing the holidays with chronic pain, and finding there are still things to be thankful for, even if they're the little things that are only important to you.

Somebody Heal Me writes about a change in perspective in her post, Being Thankful for 'Bad' Luck.  "I've learned that everything is exactly as it should be.  I'm so thankful for this gift.  Things in my life may not always be fair or desirable.  But we never know whether something is good luck or bad luck because we don't (we can't) see the whole picture.  And once you let go of the desire to label things that happen in your life, there's such freedom and the potential for great happiness."

Laurie at A Chronic Dose shares that while there will always be sickness and unexpected complications, this is a time to ignore what isn't working right and what we can't do or can't have.  Instead, focus on everything that is going our way.  Her post is Giving Thanks Recap (Straw Included).

Lisa at Chronic Illness & Pain Support with Lisa Copen writes in Counting the Blessings Hidden in Illness that finding ways to be thankful can be difficult when one lives with chronic illness.  "But if we step back and notice all the little things that happen in our lives - when we were blessed instead of given more stress - it's easy to see just how thankful we can be!"

Matthias at The Neurotopian writes a post of thanks to all scientists who have the courage to speak out under difficult circumstances and made life better for all of us.  And he shares a video of one of his favorite scientists, V. S. Ramachandran, "a brilliant scientist who's done more to help cure chronic pain than anyone else on the planet."

Keep Working, Girlfriend asks, Do you want to hear Happy Thanksgiving?  Responding to holiday good cheer can be difficult when you live with chronic pain.  Here are some ways to handle these situations.

Psychology of Pain shares a post about a man who found a cure for his pain… after a long ordeal.  Lee Nelson is a business executive who suddenly developed a very severe, intractable headache.  After years of dogged persistence, he eventually found a physician who identified the source of the pain and another whose surgical intervention was able to eliminate it.  Nelson and his wife have much to be thankful about and credit their own intellectual curiosity, motivation, and financial resources, and the diagnostic and surgical skills of some physicians (while criticizing the inaction of others).

Counting Sheep, written by a nurse anesthetist, recounts a night she spent covering an obstetrics service.  "It's about two women in pain; it's about interventions; and it's about what is fair."

Sufferer of RSD shares a way to express your thankfulness and to support someone who contributes everyday to pain organizations.  Alecia Grafton, a woman with CRPS, will donate 5% of all Christmas sales from her gift basket business, Heart Filled Baskets, to RSDS.org.  Sufferer of RSD writes "I commend her for being able to take a gift that she has and use it to support RSD/CRPS."


http://www.howtocopewithpain.org/blog/172/pain-carnival/

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