Pain after surgery or injury can be overwhelming. When someone is in significant pain, medication is often necessary, and sometimes that includes opioids for a short period. That is not a failure, and it is not something to feel uneasy about. The important part is...
Pain is rarely just a physical signal. It is an experience shaped by the brain, the nervous system, emotions, and memory. That is why two people with the same injury can experience pain very differently, and why pain can linger long after tissues have healed. This...
When I left school, I was certain of one thing: I was done with studying. The plan was simple. Get a job, do the work, then get on with enjoying life. I became a farmer in Zimbabwe, and for a while, that felt like a future I could settle into. Then politics...
When something doesn’t feel right in your body, most people don’t start by booking an appointment. They start by searching. A symptom shows up, then another, and before you know it, you’re typing a few words into Google, or maybe into ChatGPT. Suddenly, you’re...
Every doctor has a moment that changes the course of their career — a moment that isn’t planned, expected, or even welcome at first. Mine arrived quietly, tucked inside a rural Canadian hospital where chronic pain patients were travelling hundreds of kilometres for...
Most people stand in their kitchen holding a hot pad in one hand and an ice pack in the other, wondering which one to use. And when you’re in pain, that confusion feels even worse. You want relief now, but knowing whether to use heat or ice for injury makes all the...
One of the most discouraging things a person can hear is that their scans look normal when they are clearly struggling. You may walk into a clinic with obvious discomfort, but when the MRI or X-ray comes back clean, the room suddenly becomes quiet. The implication —...
If there’s one truth I’ve learnt working with thousands of people in pain, it’s this:Your emotions drive the bus. And depending on the day, the weather, and whatever life has thrown at you, that bus can be driven beautifully… or it can career straight off a bridge. I...
When I first started studying pain during my anaesthetics training, the medical field treated it as something purely physical. You hurt your back, so the problem must be in the back. You injure your shoulder, so that must be where the pain lives. But over time, we...
When people talk about faith and healing, the conversation often turns spiritual, but there’s also science behind it. Over the years of working with chronic pain patients, I’ve seen something remarkable. Those who have a sense of faith, purpose, or belief in something...