Time for Action to Help Relieve Pain

I started to write this blog in 2009. That was five years after I had recovered from chronic severe back pain. I had written a non-published book at that time about the experience of healing. The book was about my two back surgeries and how I avoided the advice of doctors for more surgeries. This original book was a flow out of all that I had experienced. Three decades of chronic pain, two failed surgeries, the discovery that I could heal back pain with nutrition and growing three inches taller in ten months as I healed (think about twenty plus discs expanding in height more than one tenth inch to clear all the nerve roots). I have finally gotten over my thinking that the medical profession would move forward and not allow people to continue to suffer with back pain. After all, if an engineer could figure the combination of nutrients to allow cartilage to heal, then certainly someone in medical research could do the same.

I struggled after healing that first two years with why the medical guideline changes for healing failed cartilage had not already occurred. I had met twice with my congressman about the possibility of Congressional hearings to allow the experts to speak on things they had found on nutritional deficiency and chronic disease. We had talked about a meeting with Senator Burr to see if we could make it happen. Then, I discovered Secretary Michael Levitt’s Principles for Health and Human Services. With “Markets before Mandates” five positions above “Value Life”, I knew the economy is more important to the US Government than any life of an individual or many individuals. I knew that only a grass roots effort would cause change. I was happy to see Carole Baggerly turn her anger into action with the founding GrassrootsHealth. If you did not watch her in my last post then do that now! Presentation to Direct-MS Canada.

I have finally gotten over my emotions enough to act. I took an online course in creative writing, a daunting task for an engineer. I have reduced that first two hundred page book into about one hundred fifty pages and plan to e-publish within a week or so. It is about my life of pain, the discovery of healing, the healing, social acceptance, and my struggle to understand what was happening in government and our institutions. I only tout vitamin D3 in this book, but understand that it is the combination of many nutrients that allows cartilage to heal. Also, I wanted to wait because of the possibility that I was a unique case.   But after ten years of enjoying good health, it is now time to act.

I am about seventy percent through writing a how to book on healing back pain(still working on finding a publisher). This book will include a section on how to manage pain, the nutrients required for healing, and how to work with your doctor as you use nutrients to heal. To accomplish this task, I have persuaded a couple of medical professionals to coauthor, Molly Schneider, PharmD, and Caitlin Gerrald, PA-C.  Also, my primary care physician has agreed to write a preface supporting my claims of healing. We will also have a chapter for physicians. Here we will try to describe the physiological mechanisms as we best understand them to get physicians to understand the multiple levels of DNA/RNA action and needed nutrition to support them. We will also help physicians avoid the pit falls like just supplementing vitamin D versus checking the blood serum level of 25(OH)D.  Also supplementing with vitamin D3 versus vitamin D2. We will also do the same with other nutrients that are on the market as mimics or analogs of natural supplements. I am asking several of the people that have tried the supplements to be interviewed for this book and to discuss their outcomes. Hopefully, I will be able to release this book within six months to a year.

How significant is the need for a method to heal back pain? Consider Dr. Mercola’s recent article of “How to Avoid the Number One Cause of Disability”

My doctor, after the second surgery, offered to write me a letter for seventy percent disability. I declined at the time because through faith I believed there was a solution. It turned out to be both medical, environmental, and nutritional. Everyone who has suffered with back pain should at least try the nutrients before attempting the surgery route. Dr. Mercola makes this statement in the summary: “I strongly recommend avoiding surgery until or unless you’ve exhausted other treatment options, which include chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, exercise, and most importantly, K-Laser treatment.”

I would here like to apologize to all the people in the world suffering from chronic pain for not releasing these two books earlier.  Also for not disclosing all the needed nutrients in a timely manner. Unfortunately, there is more than physical disability in suffering with chronic pain. It totally distorts your outlook and mood from decades of pain and drugs. Every time I would hear of another person dying from chronic disease from apparent nutritional deficiency, I would allow anger to raise its ugly head instead of using it for action of love, peace, and joy. Here is a video of a recent Toastmasters speech in which I describe an event with one of my neighbors.

“Pulled from the Abyss Again”

I would like to thank my wife for her help in this effort and all the pain and suffering she has had to witness without a flinch.  – Jill W. Pegram, MT(ASCP)SC

I’m Back! Apology to My Readership

I apologize to my readership for having taken a three and a half month leave from writing.  I have had six deaths in my extended family since last March and the grief has been burdensome.  Add to this tragedy the joy of two new grandchildren and an emotional rollercoaster has presented itself like no other.   I come from a large family – eight siblings.  We have had three mother-in-law deaths including my own this past week, my sister, and a nephew and his wife (they are my age).   The joy is two grandsons that finally make the men in my immediate family outnumber the women.  Two son-in-laws, two grandsons, and myself makes the men outnumber the women by five to four – an end to estrogen hell! – Just kidding girls!

I had to make a decision about what is more important in my life.  There is no explanation for the logic.  The good thing for you is that these tragedies and joys have help me to understand that the most important thing in my life is to help educate the general population to the understanding that nutrition is more important than the way we are currently practicing modern medicine.  This has been made clear to me through my survival of very serious disease.  As stated by the founded of Apple, Steve Jobs, our purpose is defined by death and renewal.  Stanford, June, 2005 commencement speech: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Where does that leave me with established medical practice?  I am scared.  The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disease) was just recently changed to include depression from grief to only have an exclusion of two months.  I have exceeded that exclusion by one and half months.  Does this make me clinically depressed?  No I made choices about what to do with my time as responsibilities to my family changed significantly.  Could I have gotten drugs for my crisis?  I am sure that I could have, but that would have been ridiculous because the side effects from the drugs would have been worse than the grief that I have suffered.  This is to say nothing about being put on a new electronic list as part of medical records that seemingly all institutions now have access to.  Article from Wired: Psychiatry’s New Rules Threatens to Turn Grieving into a Sickness http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/dsm-5-bereavement/

Only in God and love can resolution be found as His desire for us is spiritual joy, peace, and love.  I leave you with the words of Jim Valvano’s Espy Speech when he was only two months from death with cancer:  “To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Valvano#ESPY_speech

Thanks for continuing to read! – Pandemic Survivor