And R.T.: Thank you, re : cognitive function with chronic pain and narcotic management. I sit here right now, responding to comments and such because I had to toss out my plans for today, because of chronic pain that I had to treat with narcotics. Some of that plan was actually exercise that I am hounded about doing!

I should write up something about my experiences with the military’s pain manageement clinic. They have some odd ideas about what you are supposed to do to manage pain in order to live painkiller free. Heh.

The catheter is also a huge inconvenience. It reduced my mobility because I had to be very careful with it. It was in my neck.

It also hurt a great deal when they pulled it out of me. I could have sworn the catheter was an inch round until I finally saw that it was only a little thicker than fishing wire.

I’d bet that nerve blocks do work for a lot of people, but they aren’t magic like Dr. White and the article seem to make them out to be.

The electro-stimulator looks interesting, but I do doubt it would work on my phantom limb pain. Research suggests that phantom limb sensation and pain resides mostly in the brain, not in one’s severed nerves.

His opinion of opiates and narcotics disgust me. On top of my gabapentin I need 6-8 10-325 percocet a day to function. That’s if I don’t need to dip into my massive reserves of ms-contin and hydromorphone too.

I would like to see Dr. White experience the difference of cognitive function when one has untreated, out of control, chronic pain and when one’s pain is managed by opiates and narcotics. I’d take the latter over the former as having experienced it. I think most people would too.