Finding and Working with Doctors - What to Look For, What to Do

by Dr. Bruce Campbell, PhD
November 18, 2009

Dr. Bruce Campbell is a recovered ME/CFS patient and former consultant to self-help programs for chronic illness at Stanford Medical School. His nonprofit site (www.cfidsselfhelp.org) offers articles, low-cost online self help courses for ME/CFS, and fibromyalgia patients in moderated discussion group format, with free follow-up programs & support.

One important set of relationships for people with CFS and fibromyalgia is those they have with their doctors and other healthcare professionals.

Given the complexity of chronic illness and the likelihood of having several medical problems, you may assemble a group of providers to help you live better.

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Thought you might be interested and participate in this live Q&A about research being done. Below are the details:

ProHealth and the HHV-6 Foundation are honored to announce that we will host a free presentation & Q&A session by XMRV researcher Judy Mikovits, PhD - to be held in Santa Barbara, CA, and streamed live on ProHealth.com Friday, January 22.

BRIEF BACKGROUNDDr. Mikovits
As director of research at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, Judy Mikovits gained worldwide attention in October with publication of a paper in the journal Science, reporting “Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” To review the article and subsequent media coverage, see “In The News” at www.WPInstitute.org.

XMRV Research Continues, Worldwide
Dr. Mikovits’ team at Whittemore-Peterson, and collaborating researchers around the globe, are working intensively on next steps in the research – which relates to ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and other neuroimmune disorders, certain cancers, and much more.

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For those of you not acquainted with Rest Ministries, this is a good introduction. This ezine is more than what you would expect… it is a life-line for all of us who suffer from chronic illness. Here you can laugh, cry, and be encouraged right from the pages at your fingertips. A certain comfort this holiday as we see the joy of giving sucked out of this celebration of God’s greatest gift to the world. Jesus Christ lives in our hearts and thrives on our joy in Him.

As many of you may already be aware of, our weekly issue of HopeNotes is a free e-mail and newsletter that comes to your e-mail box each week. We also have HopeKeepers magazine. In the past this was an actual magazine, digest size, that we published. However, due to financial cutbacks, we were no longer able to print the actual magazine which costs over $10,000 per issue. Instead, it is now online in a digital format that you can click on to read or print out.

Although the price for this is typically $5 per issue, I am providing full access to the 64 pages absolutely free as just my way of saying thank you for your support of Rest Ministries.

for website click here…

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I have discovered this wonderful Advent calendar with a devotional for each day in Dec. Dec. 1st is started for you below. I love the joy of this site and encourage you to visit it every day throughout this meaningful time of the year.

The Tale of Three Trees
A traditional folk tale, retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

Once upon a mountain top, three little trees stood and dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up.

The first little tree looked up at the stars twinkling like diamonds above him. “I want to hold treasure,” he said. “I want to be covered with gold and filled with precious stones. I will be the most beautiful treasure chest in the world!”

The second little tree looked out at the small stream trickling by on its way to the ocean. “I want to be a strong sailing ship,” he said. “I want to travel mighty waters and carry powerful kings. I will be the strongest ship in the world!”

The third little tree looked down into the valley below where busy men and busy women worked in a busy town. “I don’t want to leave this mountain top at all,” she said. “I want to grow so tall that when people stop to took at me they will raise their eyes to heaven and think of God. I will be the tallest tree in the world!”

There’s more and it’s wonderful…

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“Maybe It’s Fibro?” Treatment and Management
December 16th - 8:00pm ET

Please join us on December 16th at 8:00pm ET for a 1-hour, live, interactive webinar, “Maybe It’s Fibro?” with Daniel J. Clauw, MD Professor of Anesthesiology, Medicine (Rheumatology) and Psychiatry at the University of Michigan (UM). The webinar will review the common symptoms of fibromyalgia and focus on treatment and management techniques (NOTE: Webinar will discuss overall treatment and management, not details on specific medications).

Dr. Clauw serves as Director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at UM. Since moving to UM in 2001, Dr. Clauw has been committed to clinical care and research in overlapping conditions such as fibromyalgia and interstitial cystitis.  Dr. Clauw is an internationally known expert in chronic pain, especially in regards to the central nervous system and its contributions to chronic pain states.  His ongoing work also includes conditions such as low back pain, osteoarthritis, vulvodynia, endometriosis, irritable bowel syndrome, and temporomandibular joint disorder.

Dr. Clauw attended UM for both undergraduate and medical school studies and then completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology Fellowship at Georgetown University. He joined the faculty at Georgetown University in 1990, and while there, founded the Georgetown Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, and served as the Division Chief of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine.

Space is limited so please register today.  Please note that registration is a two-step process.

• Click this link to go to the registration screen.  Complete the registration questions and press the “Register” button.
• Check your email (make sure to check in Junk or Spam Folders as well) for a message from ops @ infiniteconferencing.com to confirm your registration.
• After clicking the link in the confirmation email, you will receive a second email with links to access the webinar and a phone number to call.
• Please make sure to run the system test prior to the webinar.

If you need assistance with registering, please contact us at webinar@painfoundation.org.

Thank you,
American Pain Foundation

This project was made possible by support from Pfizer Inc

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