My Recent Follow up Appointment
I’ve had loads of information to process after my recent appointment with pain specialist, Dr Nick Christelis. To prevent you all from zoning out (and my backside [...]
October 18th, 2017
5:09 pm
August 14th, 2017
9:40 am
Video: Why I Made Pain Train
Soula shares her frustration with pain management and how it lead her to founding Pain Train. In this short video Soula also provides her insight on how people experience pain as well [...]
July 22nd, 2017
10:50 am
Self Management: Acceptance, Commitment & Sacrifice
(Image: Written Within* by Elizabeth Banfield hand burnished linocut, kozo tissue, thread ©2017) My sacral stim and I have known each other for a full 17 months now, so I felt it was the [...]
March 12th, 2017
3:43 pm
ADF campaign: Losing Yourself in Pain Medication
The Alcohol & Drug Foundation (ADF) has been working to enhance awareness about the way Australians consume pain killers. My understanding of the campaign is that the ADF in no way suggests pain killers [...]
July 3rd, 2016
10:26 am
Adventures of a stim controller
Ever wondered what a stim’s controller’s day looks like? Firstly, let me clarify that I’m talking about my Boston Scientific Sacral Stimulation Implant controller (BSSSIC), not my St. Jude’s Peripheral Stimulation Implant [...]
June 12th, 2016
9:52 pm
Who am I going to be – Soula ‘a’, ‘b’ or ‘c’?
My new stim’s changed everything. I’m grateful. Can you imagine if the whole process (from trial to permanent implant) hadn’t change anything? In addition to the stim changing everything, I’m living a [...]
October 24th, 2015
5:26 pm
My pain management is turning into a thesis!
It’s taken almost 9 years but I’ve realised that chronic pain requires alot of study – dare I say never-ending study? I believe my research for pain relief for chronic pain may [...]
September 28th, 2015
8:18 pm
How can you know? There might be better treatment out there!
I know that living with pain for over eight years reduces confidence and belief. It even (warning, I'm going to use the C word), discourages hope for a cure. But how could I have assumed I found my best self for four years (nearly five actually, gulp!)?
August 11th, 2015
10:35 am
Back on the treatment trail
So someone got talking to someone on a plane (you know how that story goes, your eyes begin to glaze over because you're in pain thinking 'if this friend tells me I need to meet someone and sustain a new friendship, I'm going to punch him' - but in the end, it works out that you wished you had sat next to that someone on the plane, and you meet that person and you wished you had met them a very long time ago (like eight years ago for me).
June 28th, 2015
10:02 am
Peripheral Stim messing with my bone density score
Thinning bones at the age of 43. That's not good, in fact I landed, once again, in that unique and very small group of patients with a rare condition...