About Me

I’m Darlene, the Chronic Pain Pariah who runs this blog. My spine problems began with my neck starting around 2001, but I experienced painful repetitive strain injuries in my wrists and hands before that. My low back problems began around 2011. I have hypermobile joints, which means they are unstable and prone to injury and pain. I also have degenerative disk disease and many herniated discs in my neck and low back, spondylolisthesis, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, and a torn right hip labrum.

I’m a former acupuncturist, having had to give up my high-volume practice because of chronic pain in 2015. I believe acupuncture is a useful adjunctive treatment for pain, but it is unfortunately inaccessible to the non-rich because it isn’t usually covered by insurance, usually costs $100 or more per treatment, and usually takes several treatments to see results. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford acupuncture, it can help you to use less opioid medication, and it helps improve general health, but it is no replacement for opioids for acute or chronic intractable pain. Acupuncturists who tell you otherwise are lying to you. And, by the way, opium is Chinese medicine.

Before that, I was in medial publishing. I worked in “project houses” that created continuing education programs for doctors, all of it financed and controlled by big pharma. The people who wrote the checks had the final say in the content. It was up to us to find studies to support their marketing objectives. Before the project houses, I worked in academic medical journal and book publishing. I had one boss, a nuclear medicine big shot, tell me “just because someone has ties to a drug company doesn’t necessarily mean there is a conflict of interest.” I couldn’t disagree more.

I’ve always been skeptical of the medical industry and its claims and financial motivations. It’s why I don’t have worse physical problems than I do from something like “failed back surgery syndrome.” I think it’s shameful how expensive, extractive, and unhelpful US healthcare is. But even if meaningful change happens excruciatingly slowly, I still think it’s worth fighting for.