Hello, this is James Fricton, and
welcome to the course on Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach.
We're taking a variety of different approaches in this course,
to convey many of the concepts associated with preventing chronic pain.
And one of those approaches, is a creative approach.
So I wrote this book, The Last Scroll, as a way to convey some of
the knowledge associated with preventing chronic pain and health and
wellness, and I started it out as a non-fiction book.
However, as I got into it I realized that there was a story to
tell that was much more interesting if I turned it into a Murder Mystery.
So, in my attempt to convey a broader knowledge associated with these risk
factors and protective factors, that's what I did and that's, this is the result.
So, I thought I would use the book and some of the excerpts from
the book to illustrate the concepts associated with preventing chronic pain.
Particularly those concepts that are not associated with science.
Now, most of the courses related to the scientific knowledge and
a lot of it is based on systematic reviews as well as critically appraised topics.
However, not all science has really progressed to the point of really
understanding some of the many concepts associated with preventing chronic pain.
So what happens when science really does not have all the answers?
What do we rely on?
Well, particularly in terms of preventing chronic pain, sometimes people punt or
they don't do anything at all, or they pray and hope that it gets to better.
Or that may take a guess from a variety of different treatments that are out there.
And then of course, they often defer to somebody else or not to do it at all.
But, none of those are particularly good options when they,
there is a lot of strategies that can be used to prevent chronic pain.
And we rely on many of those strategies presented in this course are based on
experience, clinical experience.
And the faculty in this course have a total of about 600 years in
clinical experience working with chronic pain patients.
But also, we use a lot of common sense within this field.
And this quote is kind of humorous about that sometimes it is so
rare that it should be considered a superpower.
But what is common sense?
Well, let me give you a few examples of what we've seen as an example of,
of poor common sense?
If a medication doesn't work, what do you do?
Most people or many people, including doctors, increase the dosage.
Well, that may not be the best strategy.
If a medication causes side effects what do you do?
Add another medication to reduce the side effects?
I don't think so.
If surgery does not work the first time,
a lot of times what happens is they do surgery again.
Well repeat surgeries actually increase the possibility of chronic pain.
If it hurts to sit for a long period of time, what do people do?
Get another chair.
When they actually probably should stop sitting and
bury their positions at work or home.
If it hurts being active a lot of people just lie down all of the time.
Now that's not the appropriate approach for
preventing chronic pain from muscle skeletal cause.
And if you feel stressed from doing too much,
well, some people hurry to get it done, so they just get it over with.
Well, that increases stress over time.
And what happens if you feel good after eating one doughnut?
Some people think well, you would eat more to feel even better.
Well, as we know moderation is really the key to feeling good.
And then, if you feel more energy with a cup of coffee, well, maybe you should have
two, three, four, or 20 cups of coffee, as one of my patients was on.
So, each of these are concepts that we see with my patients that I
see with my patients on a regular basis.
And we need to use common sense with regard to preventing chronic pain.
So, with regard to the introductions, then,
there's a couple ways to convey these common sense concepts.
One is you can just push the information out.
I can just present it to you, and as you'll see in the many of the modules is
I'm just presenting lots of information for you, sometimes too much information.
And I apologize for that, but it is a lot,
a very wide range of knowledge out there on preventing chronic pain.
And I figured I should just present all of it to you and
you can kind of scroll through fast if you, if it's not relevant to you.
But there's another way too, and that is to pull information or
pull them in, pu, pull readers in and viewers into a story.
And so with that The Last Scroll was sort of my attempt at,
at presenting more creativity, a story related to these concepts.
And stories do boost imagination and creativity.
And they kind of reflect this dance between experience and stories.
So, that's what life is really about.
And we all have our experiences, and we all have our common sense, too.
So, I believe it's important to present some of this.
And to help learn through use of a story.
And as Rudyard Kipling said,
if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.
So some of the concepts that we present include the concept of
of your being, the way you are.
What, how do people know the way you are, and it's through your virtues and vices.
And some of the concepts of doing, what you do is what you are.
And concept of passion, of balance, you can see the rest of these moderation.
The value of vacations.
Challenges what is love?
How does that fit into a course on preventing chronic pain?
The human spirit.
What is it the characteristics?
Why is that important in healing?
Desire, why does desire and, and
that type of passion really drive a lot of our motivation?
Celebration, and the jer, joy of sharing with others.
Conflict, dealing with fights.
How do you deal with fights?
How does it drive chronic pain.
How do you avoid fights and conflicts?
And then the concept of energy thieves,
those bad relationships we have that really pull us down.
These are all concepts that are more common sense types of
concepts that don't have a lot of science behind it.
And so, through the introductions, we are going to present that information to you.
And it's going to be a little bit creative so bear with me.
It's going to present a few slides, some music and
some excerpts from the books so I hope you enjoy them.
Thank you very much.
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