New digital format for Spinal Cord Injury Pain Book

Perhaps the most excruciating aspect of pain is the loneliness of the experience - as seen in Sam's story from the book:

“I have had pain ever since my injury. I can remember just after the surgery, I had a sensation of tingling and burning in both my legs. At the beginning it was just annoying and I thought it would go away. But then it got stronger and stronger. The doctors told me that it was early days and that it could settle down. But it didn’t. It kept going. It is now 13 years since the accident and the pain is still there. I can’t move or feel my legs. But I have pain all the time. Burning. It never stops. The only time I get any relief is when I go to sleep. I am okay for the first few minutes of the day when I wake up. And then it hits me. The pain is horrible and I can’t understand why I am in pain. Sometimes I think the doctors think it is all in my head. But it’s real. I know it’s real.” Sam, forklift drive, age 48.

For Sam and others like him, dealing with the physical agony of pain is only part of the struggle – the rest is a silent and constant emotional battle.

Which is why National Pain Week 2015 describes the experience of pain as the “invisible burden.” And so the motivation behind Pain Week this year is to “break the silence.”

The Spinal Cord Injury Pain Book does just that. Following on from the success of The Pain Book, The Spinal Cord Injury Pain Book is written by some of Australia’s most experienced spinal cord injury pain experts - Philip Siddall, Rebecca McCabe, and Robin Murray (with Kathryn Nicholson Perry and Lyndall Katte) and also includes the personal and experiences of people living with pain.

Many of these stories are from the authors’ former patients who have found relief and support in the strategies contained in this book.

There are more than 10,000 people living with spinal cord injuries in Australia and each day one new person sustains a spinal cord injury.

This book explains that pain is real, that there is a range of resources and strategies available to help make pain more bearable, and importantly, that there is a community of people who understand this experience of pain.

The Spinal Cord Injury eBook is available for Kindle (Amazon) $9.95 or iPad/iPhone (iTunes) and related apps and will soon be available via other reading devices.

Author and pain specialist, Prof Philip Siddall, says: "Whether you are experiencing chronic pain after spinal cord injury, or you are a friend or family member of someone in this situation, this book hopes to provide a range of transforming strategies for the best possible way to deal with spinal cord injury related pain.

"These range from medication and new technology, through to skills such as exercise, distraction, relaxation and meditation."

The book is also avaliable as a paper back from: http://www.hammond.com.au/shop/pain-managment/the-spinal-cord-injury-pain-book