Good Morning. And a very Happy Thanksgiving to my American pals, who deserve a day of rest and merriment. But enough about you.
One of the ostensible purposes of this blog has been to try to help anyone else out there who has been suffering from the unintended consequences of inguinal hernia surgery and chronic pain, and when I last left off I was pretty much at the end of my proverbial medical rope. But a light has truly been shone on my troubles and it seems somewhat miraculous.
Compounding my issues, as attentive readers [hahahahahaha, ed.] will remember, I broke my left femur in 2015, and the pain issues flared. Taking solace in audio books, I sat and listened to Norman Doidge’s The Brain’s Way of Healing, and couldn’t help but know I had to take on my pain problems in a different way. And I worked hard at my yoga, and it did help, but I also relied on narcotic pain medication, albeit a small dose, and had accepted my lot. My last contact with doctors had been pretty conclusive. You have tendinopathy and adhesions and a torn hip, a chunk of metal in your left leg and some mesh in your right side and we have repaired you as best we can and have little left in our kit bag other than cortisone shots in unmentionable places which I have had. Have some more tramacet, and let’s up your medical marijuana prescription. Now don’t get me wrong. I have had excellent medical care in a difficult and not obvious situation. Some unfortunate doctors along the way, but mostly really knowledgeable and compassionate people doing their utmost in an intractable situation.
And then here I was, two years after breaking my leg, thinking why didn’t I just go to Toronto to see if the lasers mentioned in chapter 4 of The Brain’s Way of Healing might be able to help the pains in my right groin. So I got on the web to have a glance at my options only to find that the specific laser therapy mentioned by Dr. Doidge, Bio-Flex Laser, has spread like wild-fire and was available at a number of locations here in Ottawa.
After 14 laser sessions focusing on my right groin, and 7 very helpful manipulations working on the inflexible muscles I had developed in my back through years of careful movement trying not to trigger pain but creating a world of problems of its own, I found myself thinking I didn’t really want to take my tramacet. Not a huge moment, just a sort of casual, humph, I don’t think I need it. And here we are, a week later, and though my body still sometimes seems to crave that relief, I am certainly in no more pain than when I started, and a significant medication down.
There are beginning to be solid medical studies showing the efficacy of lasers in all sorts of situations, and this one in particular caught my jaundiced eye:
And just in case you don’t feel like clicking on that exciting sounding link, here are the results and conclusion of the study:
G1 [who had the laser therapy] showed significantly better results in the VSS [Vancouver Scar Scale] totals (2.14 +/- 1.51) compared with G2 [no laser therapy] (4.85 +/- 1.87); in the thickness measurements (0.11 cm) compared with G2 (0.19 cm); and in the malleability (0.14) compared with G2 (1.07). The pain score was also around 50% higher in G2.
CONCLUSION:
Infra-red LLLT (830 nm) applied after inguinal-hernia surgery was effective in preventing the formation of keloids. In addition, LLLT resulted in better scar appearance and quality 6 mo postsurgery.
While I wish it had been an option earlier, like an oak tree that you didn’t plant twenty years ago, it can still be planted today. And so far so very good.
My list of things to cope with has expanded to the almost never mentioned Bell’s Palsy that has plagued me for 5 years, but which also just might respond to laser therapy, as these two studies suggest:
So let’t hope the next time you see me I am not drooling and walking like peg leg Pete. I honestly haven’t felt there was hope in a long time, and really hope that others out there with chronic pain will do some research into lasers and healing and possibly get some relief as I have.
