The Rapp Report: Chronic Pain Awareness

September marks the start of pain awareness month. As such, I have a few favors to ask. First off, share our podcast across social media. Share it with family. Share it with friends. Tag friends and family when you post our episodes and ask them to do the same. Let's raise awareness like never before during Pain Awareness Month. Second, email Dennis Prager and encourage him to be on our show so he can share his experiences. You can email Mr. Prager at https://www.dennisprager.com/email-dennis/. Third, be sure to check out Lauren and Shasta of CIAAG's new dossier, A Crisis Exploited. You can find it at https://uploads.documents.cimpress.io/v1/uploads/8c5ce74b-fe72-4ed8-a7ab-ac47fb512cae~110/original?tenant=vbu-digital 

 

Thank you all for all of your support.

In this episode, we interview Claudia Merandi, founder of the Don't Punish Pain Rally and also of The Doctor Patient Forum. Claudia has been an advocate for several years now, and founded the Don't Punish Pain Rally to bring national attention to the destructive impact of the 2016 CDC guidelines on the chronic pain community. Be sure to check out the national Don't Punish Pain Rally Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/DontPunishPainRally, and also The Doctor Patient Forum. https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/

In this episode, we interview 2020 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee, Jeremy "Spike" Cohen. Spike won the nomination on May 24th of this year. Together with Jo Jorgensen, Spike wants to tackle the most important issues concerning The American people, especially with healthcare. Spike believes in individual freedom, especially in the doctor's office, and that big government and law enforcement agencies have no place in the doctor's office with you. That healthcare shouldn't be micromanaged by unelected bureaucrats. 

Be sure to check out their website and get to know both Jo and Spike and what they stand for at https://jo20.com/

In this episode we interview Lawrence and Rhonda Favero, organizers of the Don't Punish Pain Rallies for the great State of California. 

 

You can find more information for the California Don't Punish Pain Rallies on their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2145364345736833

Johnna Magers has 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry and is a chronic pain patient. She started trying to help the disabled several years ago when this crisis started for herself. The mission of The American Pain and Disability Foundation  includes encouraging and enabling self-advocacy: maintaining their highest level of functioning possible; stopping the stigma surrounding those who are in pain management, due to chronic pain or painful disabilities.  Encouraging that they be treated with respect so they can retain their dignity. 

Be sure and check out their website: https://americanpaindisabilityfoundation.org/

In this episode we discuss the witch hunt against pain doctors in the United States, particularly that of Dr. Steven Henson of Wichita, Kansas, who is now serving a life sentence. We also discuss the propaganda campaign being used against doctors and pain patients that fuels this opioid hysteria.

In this episode, we interview Cathy Kean. Cathy is a chronic pain warrior and a very active and outspoken member of the chronic pain community. Not only does she deal with her own pain, but she advocates for others suffering from excruciating pain, and whose lives have been devastated by the opioid hysteria. In particular, she raises awareness of the thousands of people who have succumbed to their pain and taken their own lives. 

 

Visit her Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/painpainandmorepainCathyKean

Linda S. Cheek, MD is a retired family practice/pain management physician. Trained in conventional medicine, she found quickly in her practice that it doesn’t heal disease, so she studied multiple traditional (and futuristic) forms of healing medicine, from herbal to energetic and incorporated those into her practice.

Linda was born in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, graduating from George C. Marshall High School. She got her Bachelors in Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. She then became a secondary science teacher in her first life as she moved around the country and world as an Air Force wife. She also got a Masters in Guidance and Counseling at Phillips University.

Many of her years as an Air Force wife were spent in San Antonio, Texas. Deciding there to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, she got her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Finally achieving her ambition to become a doctor, she did her residency in Family Practice at Roanoke Carilion Hospital. She moved to rural Southwest Virginia to serve the underserved, and set up practice in Pulaski County, at the edge of Appalachia.  

Through the course of her practice, she led many patients to healing their chronic diseases, from fibromyalgia to heart disease and diabetes.

 

Learn more on Linda's website: https://lindacheekmd.com/

 

And at Doctors and Patients of Courage: https://doctorsofcourage.org/

In this episode, we interview Alexander Urman, a chronic pain warrior suffering from CSF leaks, and adhesive arachnoiditis. 

Alexander was born in The Ukraine. At the age of 15, six months after beginning karate instructions, under the tutelage of a reckless instructor, he suffered a bad acrobatic fall while learning a new technique. He badly injured his spine in the neck and lumbar regions. At that time, in The Ukraine, these types of spine injuries were not considered treatable. He was 16 when he came to the U.S.  He came already disabled, but pushed through the pain and was able to achieve much. He received two degrees from the very prestigious Stanford University in a five year program, B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and M.S. in Engineering Economics. He had great professional success in his jobs after Stanford, but was finding himself in increasing pain from sedentary computer work.  In order to adapt to the challenges of his health, Alexander wanted to have more professional flexibility and have less of a sedentary work style, to explore the managerial or entrepreneurial track. He attended the best state school in California with an MBA program – the Anderson School at UCLA. From that point on, things continued to deteriorate as he suffered through multiple failed spinal surgeries. He spends most of his days battling severe, intractable pain, as well as insomnia from the extremely high levels of pain.

In this episode, we interviewed Jemela Williams, board member of the Uriel E. Owens Sickle Cell Disease Association of the Midwest. 

Jemela Williams is a lifelong Sickle Cell Advocate that has a passion for spreading awareness and helping those navigate through the challenges of having Sickle Cell. As a Sickle Cell Warrior, she aims to inspire other Sickle Cell Warriors to live their most phenomenal lives. She also volunteers in her free time as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in her community. She's served on the Sickle Cell board of directors for the Kansas City, Missouri Sickle Cell Chapter, fundraising for Sickle Cell patients and spreading awareness. She was also a Camp Counselor for Camp Courage, a camp for children with Sickle Cell, for many years. 

When she is not busy being an advocate for the community, she enjoys cinema, dabbles in photography and is an avid fashion enthusiast.

You can check out the Uriel E. Owens Sickle Cell Disease Association of the Midwest at their website, https://www.sicklecellmidwest.org/

Uriel Owens suffered greatly from Sickle Cell Anemia but despite the debilitating effects of Sickle Cell Anemia, he made outstanding contributions to his community. As a well-known civic leader in Kansas City, Kansas, he helped to establish the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project. For several years he was Director of the Economic Opportunity Foundation, an anti-poverty organization in Kansas City, Kansas. He was an active member of the Democratic Party and was a delegate to the Democratic Convention in Miami, Florida in 1972. Owens had often expressed the need for an organization that could assist sickle cell patients and their families in various ways. After his death on October 16, 1980, family members and close friends of Uriel decided to establish a sickle cell organization in his honor. The Sickle Cell Disease Association of the Midwest was established on January 19, 1981. The association continues to provide assistance to persons with Sickle Cell Disease, and to educate the community about the disease.

You can Follow Jemela Williams on twitter at https://twitter.com/Memej99