Taking charge of the pain

A pain management group in Charlottetown gives people the support they need to live with what can be a debilitating condition

By Sally Cole Charlottetown

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Louise Smith of Nine Mile Creek relaxes with a novel. Reading and doing crosswords are two ways that she manages chronic pain. Changing her mind, changes her attitude, says the chronic pain survivor. She also facilitates a pain management group to help others deal with their pain.

Louise Smith hasn't got time for the pain. That's because she's too busy caring for her family, touring on her motorcycle and reaching out to help others. "Lives goes on and I've got things to do," says the chronic pain survivor, with a smile. Smith facilitates a pain management group. "At first, I did it because it gave me support. "Now I enjoy giving other people support, bringing other people together and saying, "you're not alone. We're here for you,' " says Smith, who has chronic pain in different parts of her body.

"Even now the pain is always with me. I've just learned to take charge of it," she says. The P.E.I. Chronic Pain Support Group will meet today, March 25 in the Community Room at Sobeys on the corner of University and Allen streets in Charlottetown. It runs 7-9 p.m., and the guest speaker will be Gretchen McLean, a licensed naturopathic doctor.

While it appears that Smith has a positive attitude about her pain, it wasn't always this way. "At first, I felt discouragement at no sign of relief to come," says Smith, who started having gall bladder attacks in the mid 1990s. "Basically, it's a burning pain that intensifies into a wrenching pain," she explains. It finally got so bad that she went into the hospital to have her gall bladder removed in 1998. However, after the surgery the pain never went away. "So there was the likelihood of some nerve damage," says Smith, who lives with her husband and 10-year-old son, in Nine Mile Creek.

And it didn't stop there.

In June of 2000, she had a bad motorcycle accident. "I broke my collar bone, cracked my pelvis, twisted my knee and my right ankle. "So now, there's pain all through that area," says Smith whose depression continued until she took a four-week self-management course in Halifax in 2001. Administered by QE 2 Health Sciences Centre, it included many strategies, such as deep breathing and relaxation exercises and stress management. "In the group, there were eight other individuals. It was the first time that I realized that I wasn't alone," she says.

And while the support was wonderful, when she returned to P.E.I. she discovered that there were no support groups available. "At that point, I decided that I had to take charge," she says.

So in 2002, she started her own group.

At these monthly meetings, topics include everything from pain management to memory loss and pacing your days. "Persons who benefit from this group experience conditions that include back injury, neck or shoulder pain, arthritis, sciatica, migraine headaches and post polio and others."

The monthly meetings have provided a variety of helpful guest speakers, but it's been the support of individual members that she appreciates the most.

"There are people out there who can help me and teach me as I will be able to help and teach others," she says.

For more information call Smith at 675-2660 or go to their Web site at www.peichronicpain.isn.net.

© Copyright 2003 Charlottetown Guardian

used with permission