Terry was a middle-aged mother of two children whom I met many years ago. For reasons that are unclear, her spine just tipped forward in her lumbar area. She came into my office severely bent forward and tipped to the left side. She had understandably developed chronic pain over the … Read More
My creative artist friend, Ernesto, endured a rough couple of years and for a while he “disappeared”. The details are not important. What is important is that he is back and thriving. This piece is a statement of his time in the “Abyss.” I spend over eight years in darkness. … Read More
Fourth of July fireworks I was 5 years old and lived in a small town in New Hampshire. Our house was right across the street from the town common. I was so excited in that the fourth of July fireworks were going to be launched in the common within just … Read More
Dr. Gordon Irving was in charge of Swedish Medical Center Chronic Pain Program for many years. His group has embraced the treatment principles of the Neurophysiologic Disorder (NPD. Although each of us have different tools and styles, the essence of our approaches is similar. One of them being you cannot … Read More
Carol is one of my favorite patients and success stories. It is one that surprised both of us. Her turnaround occurred a while back but I wanted to make sure she was stable and ready to relate her experience. Background She is a middle-aged mother. She historically had been very … Read More
The common thread of those who successfully heal from chronic pain and other symptoms of Neurophysiologic Disorder (NPD) is letting go of anger through deep forgiveness. Anger and pain are inextricably linked. For many of us forgiveness involves somewhat of an intellectual process and is focused on many small “wrongs”. … Read More
I began my orthopedic surgery residency in 1981. I had an unusual path into this specialty in that I had completed two years of internal medicine residency in Spokane, WA prior to moving to Hawaii. Most orthopedic residents have had one or two years of general surgical training prior to … Read More
I had been working with Anne for a while and she had been experiencing chronic pain throughout her body for a many years. Her once productive life had fallen apart and she now depended on welfare for her sustenance. She had undergone a lumbar disc surgery a couple years earlier … Read More
A letter from a case manager Dear Dr. Hanscom: You may not receive these kinds of letters from nurse case managers very often. I thought I would advise you of the above captioned patient that you performed a redo L5-S1 microdiscectomy about a year ago. Ron got quite discouraged when … Read More
Crystal is a woman from the southern part of Washington. When I first met her, she was over 70 years-old and lived on her own. She had severe spinal stenosis in her lumbar vertebrae at multiple levels. Stenosis is a condition where bone and ligaments grow around the spinal canal … Read More