1step2life: For those living with chronic pain and the people who love them.

When her son developed severe chronic migraine at age 14, Dr. Nancy Darling developed an app to help parents of children in pain support their children. The app, 1step2life, is built on cutting edge developmental and rehabilitative science. It is the only app that helps parents and caregivers as well as people living with pain.

The TMJ joins the jaw to the skull. It's complex, closely linked to facial nerves, & under tremendous stress. No wonder it often causes pain.

If you're interested in learning more about TMJ disorders, try the following links:

Dread comes from one more day of pain, Two more days missed school. Three more failed classes. Seeing your child's future slip away. When every little failure looms into a life lost.  

In this two part episode, Andrew Burns talks about facial nerves and ganglia and how SPG blocks can be used to stop pain originating in facial nerves and ganglia.

If you'd like to look at diagrams showing the anatomy being discussed, please check out the original essays at 1step2life.  We also have a YouTube video describing nerve functioning available through that same essay.

Raynaud's phenomenon is an unusual circulatory problem where a twitchy, sensitive nervous system can over-react to cold or stress.

Originally published by 1step2life.com.

The head and face are highly innervated.  One of the most important nerves is the trigeminal, which sends information from the temples and face to the brain. The trigeminal nerve is the nerve most closely associated with migraine disease and trigeminal neuralgia.  

From a 1step2life.

The bio-psycho-social model of pain provides multiple ways to reduce pain by interfering with how painful stimuli are processed.

Check out original post on the 1step2life website. 

In 2020, the International Association for the Study of Pain revised its definition of pain. The work involved several years of interviews with multiple stakeholders and much debate. The revised definition of pain distinguishes healthy pain that protects us from harm from unhealthy pain that is a disease unto itself. But does it matter? Don't we already know what pain is?

Read the original essay on the 1step2life website.

One of the things that has been so frustrating about lockdown is that it is so clear that disabled people and folks in pain could have been served better. My son now (finally) has good days every week and good hours every day. But he doesn't have the same good hours every day. And they sure as heck don't line up with a school or work schedule. . If COVID has taught us nothing else, it's taught us that work and school can be a lot more flexible than they have been. It's time to ask for a change. For disabled people. For caregivers who need to be able to adjust their work so they aren't making decisions about leaving a sick or endangered child at home and earning a paycheck. Or between sending them to school not knowing if they can make it through the day or keeping them home so they don't get called away from work. . I always recommend this exercise because it focuses my mind. Try it.